Miette in the Lost Cities
by ForeverFreeFall
Summary: Me - in the form of my character Miette (not my real name) who was based looks and personality wise on me - has been dragged to the Lost Cities! What kind of ability (I don't want to overdo the power thing) will I have? First-Person POV since I need to practice that POV. T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**OMG!**

 **SophitzAwesome (she reviewed on my Letter to KOTLC Fandom): I totally agree! That's what this story is about! This is a self-insert… and I'm shipping myself with Tam. Maybe I could include a character in here that's an Elf and my character and your character can fangirl about Tam?**

 **BookNerd: OMG! Me too! And yeah… I found myself with reviews of "It's Fitz not Dex"… and Shannon has totally been holding out on us. Tam is so cute!"**

 **And so OK, others have reviewed (on my letter) and I realized that I am wrong. Miss Messenger has spoken (in the form of The Glitter Ninja) and told me that is not Dex on Lodestar's cover, that is Fitz. Unfortunately, I have to say… Fitz isn't as cute as Tam. THERE! I said it! Tam is hotter in my opinion. BUT that is my opinion, and I am not trying to force it on anyone. So if you don't agree, can you please leave a review and tell me? I'd love to hear who you think is cuter! I might put a poll for that… See bottom AN.**

 **So this one's a first-person POV story, because I realized I have never written a single story in first-person POV (they've all been third-person). So this is my self-insert story, and I will call myself Miette for online safety reasons, I won't give out my real name –insert smiles and happiness– so here is my self-insert story. Just so you know, the name, home location, and age are all made up. I will be safe. And I do not make straight 100s. Only straight A's. This is set into the future, after Neverseen is beaten and Keefe turns back into loveable prankster Keefe. OH BTW! There are Neverseen spoilers. BEWARE!**

 **Miette's POV:**

I hurried quickly through the streets of New York **(not my real home but whatevs. Sorry if it's not accurate. I've never been to New York)** , my plain white scarf flying out behind me. The wind was chilly, and I knew – just _knew_ – that it was going to rain. I looked back, and sure enough, my unruly shadow was darting away from me. It always did that, and I was sick and tired of it. My shadow would flick to another person and all of a sudden I would know if the person was good, bad, or in-between, and I would know exactly what the person was saying. It honestly freaked me out, and I was pretty good at maintaining control most of the time. But it was at times like this – stormy, dark, and downright _creepy_ – when I would lose control and it would dart away. It stayed with me, acted like a normal shadow during the day and at school, but at night… it really fought me.

Sometimes I wished for other people, others with weird supernatural abilities, and other times I wished not because then I might be the only person who had a messed up shadow. Anyways, I was hurrying down the street so I could get to my apartment (long story short my grades were high enough to get a four year scholarship and they even paid my rent… I may or may not have had straight 100s). Yes, I had an apartment even though I was only sixteen. And yes, I was in college. Fight me. I'm just kidding, don't fight me. Anyways, so I reached my apartment, and – get this – I thought I saw my shadow… leading another shadow to me. I freaked out and hurried inside, slamming the door behind me. With shadow or without, I was not going to see who was on the other end of the other shadow.

I peeked my head out of the curtains and saw… two guys and two girls, all very pretty. The first girl had blonde hair and brown eyes, the second girl – totally could be a popstar/movie star/star in general – had long, dark brown hair with teal eyes. The first boy looked like a male version of Girl #2 only slightly taller, and the second boy had black – jet black – hair with silver bangs. He wore a long, green and silver scarf with thick black striped between the alternating silver and green, his black shirt looked like cotton, and his dark (really dark) blackish-blue jeans were rolled up around black Converse. His blue eyes darted back and forth, and his shadow was stretched towards mine. If shadows could look impatient, his looked the part. The shadow's foot was tapping even though Bangs Boy **(that one's for you Keefe! Still love ya! –Insert smiles–)** wasn't moving at all. Well, except for his eyes. But that's not the point. The point is, _his foot wasn't moving_. And his shadow's was.

I quickly ducked my head back in the house while mulling things over in my head. A couple hours later, I peeked back out – and sure enough, Bangs Boy, Blondie, Girl #2, and Mr. Perfect were all standing outside my door. Blondie was shivering while the others looked fine – in fact, they seemed to be glowing. They were probably warm. Blondie though… I felt sorry for her. So what do I do? Go to my kitchen, turn on the stove, and heat a kettle of jasmine tea and a kettle of hot cocoa. I put four cups on a platter (you never know if the others did want drinks after all) and the kettles, then walked carefully to the front door. I opened it – a little bit at first – and then opened it wide enough to slip the drinks outside. "Have some. You look cold. But… please don't hang around for long. I will call the police." Bangs Boy looked up at me. "You're missing a shadow." I narrowed my eyes.

I studied him carefully, before growling softly. "Like I said, don't hang around for long." I turned to close the door but Girl #2 stopped me. "I'm Biana, and that's my brother Fitz–" cue pointing at Mr. Perfect "–and that's Sophie. He's Tam." Bangs Boy – Tam – eyed me carefully. "You're missing a shadow." I flung the door open. "Look Bangs B– _Tam_ – I know I'm missing a shadow. Do you think that it's easy keeping my shadow near me? It's not. Now–" I clapped a hand over my mouth. I can't believe I just told my biggest secret to a bunch of loitering teenage strangers. One of which had black hair and looked like he could easily smash my face in. I flipped my short honey-brown hair over my shoulder.

"Goodnight and go home before I call the police." I snarled. I slammed the door… and found that Bangs– ahem, _Tam_ – had stuck his foot in the doorway. I hurried to the kitchen and rifled through the pantry, looking for… ah. My Swiss Army knife from when my brother was a Boy Scout **(mine isn't. But oh well ;D)**. I marched back over to the door and whipped the blade out. "Now, get _out_ of my _apartment_ before I _make you get out!_ " Tam backed away a couple steps before he smirked. His shadow darted out and snatched my knife away, throwing it out into the parking lot four stories down. I gulped. I really hoped they weren't kidnappers. I edged away from Tam's shadow (it was trying to reach for my foot) and looked for my own. I focused all of my energy on recalling my shadow to me. At first nothing happened, and I figured that the shadow was in its natural element – night.

Then I realized, that technically night was my natural element too. I had realized a long time ago that I wrote better at night **(so true)** , focused better at night, and my thoughts were clearer at night. I wasn't burdened by school at night (unless I had homework), I didn't have to worry about what my friends were thinking, and I felt really… powerful.

I grinned. My shadow was dragged back to me and I ran. I poured all of my – significantly less, since I used it all on getting my shadow – energy into running. I hated track, because I couldn't run well to save my life **(very true. Track and I are sworn enemies)** , but since this was a save-my-life situation I presumed that I better at least try. I ran as fast as I could… and the people were still beside me even though they were barely even running. I mentally freaked out (hey! Being stalked by four kids is scary) and realized that I was never going to outrun them. I slowed, and turned to glare. "So I have a couple of questions. One: are you guys on track? Two: why are you guys stalking me and being really creepy creepers? Three: I don't want to die, so if you just leave me in peace then I will happily give you my money and you can be on your very merry way. Please?"

Tam spoke first. "Um… No. There is no way in–" Fitz interrupted him. "What Tam is _trying_ to say, is that… well… we're here to get you. You see… you're an Elf." My mouth dropped open. "An Elf? And you expected me to believe you? Ha!" Tam looked at me seriously. "You are an Elf. Now get over it. We're taking you to the Lost Cities. Now get your shadow and let's go." I found myself laughing my head off. "Hahaha… no." Fitz and Sophie looked surprised, Biana looked like she didn't care, and Tam looked impatient, frustrated, and angry. "Listen up! We're taking you to the Lost Cities whether you like it or not, because you're an Elf and we're Elves and you have no say in this!" Alright. Now did I mention I can have a temper when I don't have a say in things? Well I do. I… well to lighten things up let me just say that I reeled back and clocked Tam in the face. **(Clocked is another way of saying punched. Just FYI.)**

"You will _not_ force me to do anything! I am in charge of my own life and if you take me anywhere without my consent I will report you as kidnappers!" I threw myself sideways and sprinted down the stairs, taking them three at a time – not easy, I had a stitch in my side by the time I reached halfway down – until I reached the bottom and took off through the parking lot. I glanced back and saw (I mentally freaked out) four beams of light from which my four weird acquaintances emerged and gave chase. I reached my run-down minivan and threw open the door. I felt around in my pockets, and realized I left my keys on the coatrack by the door.

I changed my mind and whirled around to find myself face-to-face with Tam, who grabbed my arm. I screeched and felt something very, very cold slither around me. His shadow had wrapped around my feet and now prevented me from running. I opened my mouth to scream again, but nothing came out. It felt like feathers were brushing me from all sides, and I felt very warm. The light whisked me away and after a couple of seconds, I found myself staring at an enormous, bright, glowing… gate.

Fitz and Biana turned to look at me. "Welcome to Everglen," they said, their eyes twinkling merrily.

I passed out.

 **So here's a question for reviewers:**

 **How was my first first-person POV chapter?**

 **And about the poll... I will put it up tonight!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Chapter 2! I have so many aspirations for this story –happy crying– and… two polls are up! One is asking for the cutest male KOTLC character (if you've noticed, I put Bronte just to see who would vote for him. In my react, the characters will discuss my polls) and the other is for the cutest female KOTLC character. They are main characters, so I hope no one will get made if I didn't put Greyfell in there or something. I also made edits to last chapter, so if things are a bit different then that's probably why.**

 **Guest: OMG! Sokeefe for president! Lol. I totally agree with you though. Lodestar the mirror? KEEFE IS PUR LIGHT! I see what you pointed out and that is a VERY, VERY good theory. You are a pure genius Miss/Mister Guest!**

 **SophitzAwesome: Ok… your character Elaine will make an appearance! This very chapter! But Miette hasn't exactly gotten over the fact that Tam basically kidnapped her… so they aren't on the best of terms XD but there will be a scene… not M rated though. I will never write anything M rated. You never know who's reading these stories, y'know? Love your username! I used to be a Sophitz shipper. Then I got addicted to Sokeefe. But I will be happy whether Sophie ends up with Keefe or Fitz, so… I still prefer Sokeefe, but Sophitz I don't mind. As long as it's not Sodex or Sopam, then I'm fine.**

You want to know the most embarrassing thing about me passing out? According to Linh (Tam's sister), I fainted on an unsuspecting Tam. The embarrassing thing? It was TAM. We don't see eye to eye. It was so embarrassing. So here's the rest: I fell on Tam, then he fell over from the unexpected weight (no, I'm only 120 lbs. I'm not fat or anything, so don't think I weigh, like, 300 lbs. Yes, I'm looking at you. *Points at random person thinking I'm fat*) into a few bushes, which were covering a big puddle of muddy water. Talk about embarrassing domino effect.

So we ended up going into Everglen (I was still passed out. I got this all from Linh, bless her soul) where Biana threw iced water on me. That's where I woke up. And that, people, is my life story. I'm just kidding. So I woke up and found myself in a very, very big living room. I was soaking wet, cold, and shivering in a bedraggled heap on very expensive-looking furniture. I tried to hide my burning cheeks (behind my shoulder length light-ish brown hair) from the two very perfect-looking people who looked like older versions of Biana and Fitz. The lady smiled a bright white smile and held out a fluffy towel. I cleared my throat. "I think that this constitutes as kidnapping." The lady's smile faltered. "Excuse me?"

I glared at a muddy, sodden, equally glaring Tam. "I think that being dragged here against my will counts as kidnapping." The lady's smile evaporated. She took her outstretched arm back, taking the fluffy towel with her. I stood up and frowned. "I want to go home, where I can wake up and forget that I met four kids who are obviously mental. Now if you excuse me, I have a cat to feed, a door to close before someone robs my house, and a family to write to about how freaky today was. I know for a fact that I am _not_ an Elf." Tam laughed, a hollow laugh. He wasn't amused. "Whatever-your-name-is, you need to take the towel, go borrow some of Linh's clothes, and I assure you, if you can't impress the Council, then you'll be on your way home. Never to see us 'mental' kids again. We could even make you forget this entire trip. Now go change, Linh probably has something." I was pretty mad by then. Who did this guy think he was? 'Now go change'? He is _not_ the boss of me. I glared at him as best I could. "Sorry. I don't think so. I'll just go wet." Tam glared at me, and his shadow – if it had eyes – would've been glaring just as hard. I snarled at them both. The shadow lunged at me, and I flicked out a match box from my pocket. (What? I really like matches. It's so much fun to strike it and light a candle.) Luckily, it wasn't wet, so I struck it against the side as fast as I could and held it up to the shadow. It recoiled as if it had been hurt, and I sneered at it. "Take that, shadow. Not getting me like last time, you're not."

Tam glared at me while his shadow came back and rested as if it was a normal shadow. But I knew better. I snuffed the flame and stuck it in my mouth, just so it wouldn't light again. Hey, you had to be safe. I stuffed the used match in my back pocket and turned. "I'm going home." I turned a full circle before feeling my face flush. "I… uh… don't know where the exit is…" Tam smirked. Sophie laughed heartily. And if the room wasn't full enough already (there were four adults, six kids, me, a weird squirrel-bat-thing, a sparkly stuffed dragon, and a blue elephant), a blonde boy came out. I groaned. "How many more people live here?!" I wailed. The blonde boy looked about seventeen, his hair was artfully tousled, his shirt was rumpled and untucked, and his ice-blue eyes glittered with mischief. "Keefe." Sophie gave a small grin as she said his name. The room immediately grew darker with the name, and I could tell that the other people were uncomfortable. Sophie was fine though. And so was the squirrel thing. It fluttered up and sat on Keefe's shoulder, and purred loudly. When I say loudly, it was, like, chainsaw loud. Keefe scratched the squirrel thing between the ears. "Hey, who's the new girl? Foster, did you go on an adventure without me?" Sophie laughed. "Only was out tracking this one." She pointed at me.

"First of all, my name is Miette. It's not 'the new girl'. And second of all, they weren't tracking. They were stalking and kidnapping." I glared in particular at Tam. "Bangs Boy probably left bruises on my arms." I muttered loudly. I rolled up my sleeves and, sure enough, there were fingerprints on my upper arms. Tam growled, "At least I didn't almost break your nose. And don't call me Bangs Boy." I rolled my eyes. Now that I thought about it… Tam's nose was a bit crooked, and his scarf and shirt (although it wasn't that noticeable on the shirt) were stained maroon and sticky-looking. I looked down at my shoes. "I'm sorry that I'm not sorry." Tam turned red. "You–" Keefe burst out laughing. "Oh! He got beaten up by a girl! And keep calling him Bangs Boy, Miette. Oh, nice name."

I grimaced. "Am I to take offense to that? I'd like to tell you that I can pack a punch. I can give you the same as what Tam got." Keefe backed up. Tam leered at Keefe. "Marla, be careful. Wouldn't want you to be handed over to the Neverseen." Keefe stiffened and looked away. "I didn't hand Sophie over." He muttered. Biana glared freely at Keefe. "Oh yeah? You led her on! You made us believe you were good! You're a liar!" Sophie leaped to her feet. "Biana, that's over! We all know that everyone makes mistakes, and he purposely made his because he had a plan! Now the Neverseen are gone, so leave it be." Biana leaped to her feet too. "It still doesn't change the fact that he _betrayed us all!_ He joined the Neverseen!" Suddenly everyone was taking sides and I was caught in the middle.

"Stop!" I cried out. No one stopped. I inhaled and got ready to scream. "Everyone STOP!" Everyone froze in place. They slowly turned to stare at me. I stared at everyone. "Stop guys. First of all, Tam, my name is Miette, not Marla." Tam rolled his eyes and muttered a 'whatever'. "Second of all, I don't know you guys very well, but I can tell that Keefe used to be like family to you guys. I realize that was probably a while ago, but I can tell he's sorry. I don't know how, but I just do. It takes more than just one person to repair a relationship. The obstacles that knock you down only make you stronger when you get back up. Keefe's trying to repair the relationships between him and you guys. You guys – minus Sophie – aren't trying. You keep shutting him out. He's not a bad guy," I said. "Everyone needs a second chance sometimes."

Tam snorted. "How do you know if he's a bad guy or not? You don't even know him." I glared at Tam. "Bangs Boy, I know that. I just… I can _feel_ that he's not bad. Bad people feel… dark. They seem murky, angry, spiteful, and _hateful_. But Keefe… he's not. He's just cloudy. Confused. And… oh I think it'd be better to save him the embarrassment." Keefe stared at me with his mouth open. "Close your trap, you'll catch flies." Tam growled. I looked at him closely. Yeah… neither of them seemed to like each other. Keefe edged closer to Sophie, and I found myself looking at Tam and Keefe standing on either side of Sophie. Keefe reached for Sophie's hand, and Tam smacked him. I gasped. "Hey!" Tam whirled around. "Stay out of this Mia! It's not your business!" I bristled. "It's _Miette!_ Not Mia!" Tam rolled his eyes. "Just stay out of this."

I found myself chucking a pillow at him. The room went very, _very_ still. He glared daggers at me. I glared daggers at him. His shadow leaped. I screeched and hurled more pillows (most at the shadow since it was on the offensive). My shadow curled and struck at his shadow. It was shadow-vs.-shadow now. A couple seconds later the door slammed open and twelve highly rich-looking people came in. They made Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and the rest of the richest people of the world look like amateurs. I immediately knew these people were the Councilors. I just knew it. Tam's shadow pulled away from where it was strangling mine and repositioned itself to look like a normal shadow. I just stood staring at the people evenly. I wasn't going to apologize. The one with the pointiest ears spoke first. "Miss… Miette, is it? I see you have made yourself at home here. I am Councilor Bronte. It is… decent enough to meet you."

I bristled. "Sorry, but I am not making myself at home. I'm going to be going home, never to return here again. I don't want to hang out with you wackos. None of you have proven yourselves past insane yet. And none of you are making any headway either." Bronte gave a merciless laugh. "Be careful what you say, kid. The wrong things said to the wrong people could boot you to Exile."

I snarled, "Is that a threat?" Bronte shrugged as if he didn't care, but I saw the cold glint in his eye. He gave me a glance. "Too bad you aren't presentable. Or decent, for that matter." My face flushed. That made me mad. This made my getting mad at Tam look like petting a kitten. " _Excuse me?!_ I am perfectly decent! I'm more decent than the girls in my class who practically only wear swimsuits to class! I–" Bronte shook his hand, waving off my words. I struggled to hold in my scream of frustration. Bronte smirked.

I didn't even realize I had thrown the vase at Bronte until I heard the tinkling of shattering glass and felt the searing pain in my mind. I screamed and fell to the ground, writhing and clawing at my head. Tears streamed down my face and I wailed. It felt like there was a fire raging through my head, and I just wanted it to end. Sweat dripped down my face, mingling with the tears; I pressed my face into the plush carpet and screamed. All I wanted was for the pain to end. I felt warm hands pressed against my back, rubbing small circles. My back arched against the warmth; the hands felt scorching. It felt like my skin was melting. Or crawling with ants. I wailed, screaming, letting the pain flow into my voice.

The pain faded and I curled into a ball on the floor. I just lay there, shivering. Never, not once, had I felt such pain – such torture. It felt like decades had passed. I looked up at Bronte, then back down. His face was impassive, uncaring, unrelenting. He didn't care if I was in pain. I lifted my eyes to look at him again. His lips curled up. I lunged to my feet, kicking him between the legs as hard as I could. I turned and ran.

What do I care? I felt like dying. The pain was that horrible.

I didn't care if they thought I was a coward for running.


	3. Chapter 3

**I would like to say that I will put both Sokeefe and Sophitz in here, but there won't be any Sodex. They're cousins (by adoption) and it would be too weird for me to try and write a ship between them.**

 **BookNerd726: Perryling will make her appearance!**

 **SophitzAwesome: I'm so sorry! I meant to put Elaine in the last chapter but before I knew it I hit 'post chapter' and realized about ten minutes afterwards that Elaine wasn't in there! I** _ **will**_ **put her in this chapter, though. Um… Elaine is going to be an orphan in here, because I don't know how to make them meet any way else.**

I ended up finding myself stuck in a swirly tree. Hey! I was desperate to run away from Bronte, and desperate times call for desperate measures… and I must've been pretty desperate. Or panicked. I do odd things when I'm in panic. Like one time, at the airport, I started to cry because of stress. And the fact that everyone was sardine packed and I couldn't really go anywhere if I needed to run. **(True story. It happened to me over spring break… I really panicked.)** I quickly looked around, and realized that I was hopelessly lost… somewhere in Fitz's and Biana's back yard. Wow. That is something I never thought I'd say, ever. I quickly scrambled down the tree trunk, nearly slipping on one of the curly branches. I looked down to see how much farther I had to go… and found myself even higher up than when I began. I panicked – yet again – and scrambled down even faster. I found myself even higher up. I decided to try climbing up the tree, and I was relieved to start going down. After a couple of minutes, I looked down and saw a couple of amused faces staring at me.

"What're you doing up there, Mimi?" I scowled down at Tam. "It's _Miette!_ Tam, get it right!" He waved my words away. I broke off the branch beside my head and threw it at him as hard as I could. My hand slipped from the tree and I squealed, scrabbling for my hold. I clutched the tree as hard as I could, my heart thudding wildly in my chest as I suppressed the urge to throw up. I had a major fear of heights. I slowly inched my way up (the tree works opposites. When I go up, I really actually go down and if I go down then I go farther up the tree, if you hadn't figured it out already). When I reached the ground, I shakily lowered onto my hands and knees, kissing the ground. "I love you so much…" I muttered, grabbing a rock and hugging it close. "I will never leave you again." I looked at the rock with a serious face as I said that.

I looked at my strange acquaintances, who were laughing. My shadow flickered angrily. Immediately Tam was on hyper-alert. He stared at me evenly. Not with hostility, not with friendliness, but with a guarded calmness. He walked over and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. "Look, Mila–" "Miette!" "–You have to finish your speech to the Councilors and prove you're worthy to go to Foxfire." I glared at Tam with everything I had. "You mean I'm trying to prove I'm worthy enough… to go to a mushroom?" Tam's ears turned red. "It's a school, dummy!" I glared at him some more. Then I yanked my arm out of his hand and stomped off. They followed, and next thing I knew I was back in front of Councilor Bronte. He looked at me disdainfully.

"So we have another human brat to take care of. What can you do exactly, miscreant?" I leaped to my feet. "I'll show you what I can do!" I snapped my fingers and my shadow – thankfully – obeyed. It leaped towards my outstretched hand and bounced back, sending a cold wave of pure black at Bronte. Frost started to form around his nose, and his breath puffed out in chilly clouds. The room was dark and gloomy, and it was icy with the cold that came with darkness. I loved the stunned look on Bronte's face. I loved the cold more, though. Whilst I may be wary of the dark, and I may not exactly like manipulating darkness, I did enjoy the satisfaction of wintry landscapes. When it was cold, you could make snowmen and have snowball fights from behind your snow forts, and then when you got too cold or too numb, you go inside and have a nice warm cup of tea. I grinned. I had wanted the power of ice control when I saw the movie Frozen, because I loved winter so much. But alas, I got stuck with a bunch of dark stuff and rogue shadows. Very disappointing. But back to the situation at hand.

Bronte shivered slightly, his pointy ears wiggling as he shook. "You… get rid of this. Now." I willed my shadow to get rid of all the shade and cold. It – if it could – snickered at me. How dare it! Mocking me like that… I quickly realized that everyone was now staring at me. I gave a – hopefully – confident smile and tried again. Nothing happened, and I realized how embarrassing this was. My cheeks turned red, and I stifled the oncoming torrent of tears. I tried again… and nothing happened. I felt the humiliated feeling I had felt so often at school welling up inside me and my hands started to shake. I prepared to try again when all the shadow stuff faded away and it warmed to room temperature. I stiff felt mortified though. I tried to smile, but failed miserably. A Councilor with brown hair spoke up. "I am Councilor Terik, and I think that that was a wonderful display. You have much potential, although it seems that you don't like it that much. You are… modest, to say the least." I was stunned. This guy just said my display was wonderful. I had _failed_ , I didn't even know how all the dimness left; I didn't do any of it except bring the whole load of black in. Terik smiled. "I vote she stays." A princess-y councilor with bright blue eyes and soft blonde ringlets gave me a thumbs-up. "I second Terik's vote." A councilor who was pursing her lips and smoothing her caramel-ish hair in a mirror sighed. "I suppose I will say she can come." I frowned at the Caramel Councilor. A dark-skinned councilor snorted.

Everyone turned to stare. The blonde councilor grinned. "What was so funny, Emery?" Emery's lips twitched. "I don't think that Alina would approve…" Caramel Councilor snapped away from the mirror. "What would I not approve of?" She snarled. Alarm bells went off in my head and my back stiffened. Her voice turned sickeningly sweet. "Emery," She purred. "Tell me." I screeched – rather loudly – and shoved my hands over my ears. The way she talked… it made me want to scream all my secrets to the world. Alina snarled at me, stomping over to stick one rather dangerously sharp manicured nail at me. "What are you going on about? Stop that right now!" I tightened my hands over my ears. _Don't listen to her, danger, danger, don't listen, something's not right…_ You know that voice in your head that warns you when something bad is about to happen? I should've listened to it. You see, I really hate when people touch me. All the germs on their hands, the uncertainty of when the hands might've last seen a sink and soap… well, this Alina grabbed my face. And if there is anything that I hate more than being touched by dirty hands, it's aforementioned dirty hands _touching my face._ **(So true guys. I don't like being touched. That's why I don't hug people. I'll pat them on the back, but that's about it.)**

" _Ewww!_ Get your hands _off of me!_ " The blonde councilor and Keefe both looked like they were going to be sick. Disgust bubbled up into my stomach, and all I could think about were all the germs that were probably all over my face. " _Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, EW!_ " I lunged away from Alina as fast as I could, shouting 'ew' over and over again. Alina scowled. "What is wrong with you? I take back my vote. I don't need an insane child in a school as nice as Foxfire." I froze. Insane? _Me?!_ I laughed. And I laughed. And I laughed. I pressed my hands to my ribs and laughed some more. "Insane? You want to talk insane?" Alina glared at me. "All right little brat. Lay it out. Talk insane."

I grinned. "You think I'm insane? I am standing in a room full of people who think that they're Elves. Elves! Now you tell me, who exactly is insane here? Elves don't exist! They're part of stories made up to tell children before bed! They're slaves to an old fat guy in red and make toys for kids! They aren't real!"

Everyone stopped. Tam's ears were redder than I'd ever seen them. Granted that was only once (now twice), but it was something. He walked quickly over and ushered me out the door. I was glad he didn't try to grab my arm. After we got outside of the room, he pulled me aside and pointed at his shadow. It darted off. I backed away from him, instantly alert. Tam flicked his silver bangs out of his eyes. "Look, Misha–" "Miette." "–you can't be saying stuff like that. We _are_ Elves. You are not human. You are Elf. Like we are. Ok?" I looked at him. He looked at me seriously. I backed away some more, suddenly wondering where his shadow is. As if reading my mind, he said, "My shadow is making sure no one is eavesdropping."

I gave myself a moment to really look at Tam. I mean _really_ look at Tam. He was taller than me, and he wasn't exactly buff. He was lean and his hair was fairly long. Tam smirked. "Checking me out?" I rolled my eyes. He _was_ pretty cute. "You wish." He stepped closer. "Oh, I do wish." I backed up, my face flaming. He laughed. "I was teasing. I don't wish," He looked at me closely. "Yeah, I don't wish."

My face flamed again. "How dare you? What are you suggesting? Am I fat? Y'know, I don't care." I muttered, glancing at my stomach. I couldn't help but pinch myself, though. Tam smacked my hand away. "You aren't fat. So stop that." He turned away, but paused before he went back into the room. "You really do need to accept the fact that you're an Elf. And you need to know that those pillows hurt." He disappeared into the living room. I followed. Sophie was sitting beside Fitz, who was talking to her animatedly. Keefe was sitting by himself, and Biana and Linh were painting nails. The Councilors were arguing with each other quietly, and who I later found out were Alden, Della, Edaline, and Grady, were having some sort of purple-y blue swirled drink.

Alina glared at me distastefully. "The human brat is back." Oralie smiled at me, even though she looked bothered by Alina's rude remark. Emery sighed, before speaking. "It appears that we are at a tie for you to go to Foxfire. Anybody can switch. Either that or we need a tiebreaker." Nobody seemed to want to switch sides. Nobody wanted to be a tiebreaker either. Then… "I'm changing sides." A Councilor spoke fluently. I froze. Where would I go if I didn't get into Foxfire? Emery looked a bit disappointed. "Miette… you'll be attending Exilium. You will be living with the other orphaned children at one of the buildings on the outskirts of Atlantis." I decided not to ask questions about Atlantis. "Your uniform will be delivered by tomorrow evening, and you will start school the day after that. Tam and Linh will take you to the orphanage. You can stay with them until we clear up another room." Tam looked irritated. "So no one here wants her?" I looked at Tam. He was… bothered. By what, I didn't have the faintest idea. Tam held out his hand. "I suppose you'll be staying at the orphanage with us and a couple of other kids." I was curious about the other kids. But I didn't question him. I did question his outstretched hand though. He sighed.

"Look, are you coming to Atlantis or not?" I hesitated. Then I mentally shook myself. I had been kidnapped, told I was an Elf, had a pillow fight with a guy I barely knew, and had been told I was going to an orphanage to live with aforementioned guy and his sister. "Wait. I have a human friend, her name is Perryling, and I want her to come. I don't care if she's human, I will refuse to stay here unless she gets to come too. She is one of my best friends and I will run away if she can't come."

Alina looked downright furious. "No! No more selfish little girls!" I narrowed my eyes. "Then I run away and find my way home." Emery cleared his throat. "Actually, we already sent a report… as far as the world is concerned, you died in a car accident." My world spun. "Do… do what now?"

"We needed you to disappear, or something. So… we made it seem like you died in a car accident." I choked back a sob. I had a cat at my apartment, I had classes to attend, I… I had _family_. Emery patted my shoulder. "I… I can't… I'm a… I'm an orphan… everyone… I'm dead…" I felt the tears streak down my face. I took off my glasses and wiped away my tears, but with every tear I wiped away two replaced them. I wrapped my arms around myself and took Tam's outstretched hand. He lifted his pathfinder and we light-leaped away.

The orphanage was a very nice building. But that didn't numb the fact that I was now going to stay there. That I… that I had no family. **(Guys, I do have my family. A lovely mom, dad, and brother. And lots, and** _ **lots**_ **of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Like two aunts on my dad's side, two uncles on my dad's side, one uncle on my mom's side, and lots of cousins and some of their kids. I have a huge family. Not to mention two dogs in my family, plus like four of my aunt's dogs, two dogs with my dad's parents, a cat with my dad's parents, and I don't know if there are any chickens left. Yes, my dad's parents had chickens. But I think they all either got eaten or sold)**

My heart thudded as Linh showed me her and her brother's room. "Hey, Miette, think of it like an eternal slumber party! The party never stops!" I held nothing in my hands. No clothes, no personal belongings. I dropped onto my new bed and felt a little better. It was the softest, coziest bed that I had ever sat on. No way did I feel any better though. I pulled my phone from my pocket. No signal. I felt tears drip down my cheeks. I just wanted to see someone – anyone – who wasn't an elf. I wanted my stuffed animals too. I wanted to see my friend Perryling and bring her here. Then she'd get to see all of the cool things here and being here without friends would be less unbearable. I'd have a friend! I could already picture her reaction. Brown eyes flashing, shaking her head, grumbling, "And why have you not brought me here before?" And then I would nudge her until she smiled and joked about not seeing midgets in tights and pointy bell shoes. And then I would tell her that they were behind on the toys this year and Christmas might be cancelled, and then we would burst out laughing. I gave a small smile. Another girl entered the room. She was fidgeting with a cool-looking little gadget. Every once in a while it would flash and a few wires would spark. "Oh hi you must be new here! I'm Elaine, it's so nice to meet you! Most of us orphans don't have our parents because they were part of Neverseen and were Exiled, or died in the war with Neverseen. You'll see quite a few of us here." Elaine's shoulders sagged. "I didn't know mine were part of Neverseen. Sometimes I'm allowed to visit, but most of the time the Councilors think that we don't need any more influence from former Neverseen members." I looked at her for a moment. "I am Miette. I don't have any family because they think I died in a car crash. The Councilors did that to them." Elaine covered her mouth. "Oh Miette!" I shrugged. It didn't matter. What's done is done, and I couldn't change that.

Councilor Emery entered. "Miette, in order to guarantee that you will not run away or do anything rash, we have invited your human friend to stay." He nodded and in came Perryling. "Oh Perryling! I was worried they wouldn't let you come." She looked around, glaring at Tam when her eyes rested on him. "That kid got one of your punches, didn't he? I guess that means that you don't like each other?" Perryling pointed to the bruise under his eye. I glanced at Tam before shaking my head. "He's cool. I guess." She grinned. "It's so cool here. How'd you find it?"

I glanced at Tam. "I didn't. He kidnapped me."

 **I hope I got Perryling's and Elaine's personalities right! I realize I haven't updated in a while… I have been quite busy with my schoolwork… I have tons of homework. AND I had benchmarks for science and social studies, and a state exam for reading. I'm in algebra, so I'm going to be taking an end of course exam in about a month, and also in about a month I'll have social studies and science state exams. I need to study for the math, especially quadratic formulas since they are super confusing for me. And I had overdramatic friends so… that's why I haven't updated recently.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! I had state exams, and my friends are still overdramatic. I am so happy to be back though! And I've been busy with catching up on my anime watching. So far, I've been watching Toradora, Sword Art Online, Tokyo Ghoul, EndRide, and Kamisama Kiss (I think the manga is called Kamisama Hajimemashita). Oh yeah! And Blue Exorcist. I tried to watch Shakugan No Shana, but it didn't really interest me. I watched Spirited Away, and that was good. Black Butler wasn't something I liked. It was… Bleh. I just didn't like it. Assassination Classroom was also hard to get into. So far I have watched every episode of Re:Zero (a new 2016 anime). That's not the end of the title, it's just really long and complicated and I don't know how to spell it. If anyone has any good anime recommendations, please leave a review with the title and a brief summary. *winky face***

 **Hi: I love your name! Hi to you too! I admit it… I love your reviews! They make me smile and laugh! However, I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion. I like all characters!**

 **Here's the chappie!**

I was overjoyed to see Perryling, and I had a feeling that Elaine would be pretty cool. I still couldn't help but feel bummed out though, when I realized that Mr. Muffins hadn't been fed. He was probably terrified and hungry! I screamed loudly and Emery covered his ears. "What is it now, Miette?" He said grumpily. By either a stroke of luck, a coincidence, a miracle, or a combo of them, Alina came in holding my cat by the scruff of his neck. "MR. MUFFINS!" I screamed. Alina spit near my feet. "Here, brat. This butt-ugly beast was mewling pathetically for you." Mr. Muffins curled up at my feet after Alina threw the kitty down to the ground. I picked my beloved Mr. Muffins up, and I hugged him tightly. "You are a very mean person!" I told Caramel Councilor. Tam gasped and kicked me from behind. Let me just tell you, _that guy can kick._ It took a lot of willpower to not to drop on my knees, grab my leg, and cry. I didn't say anything else to Miss Caramel. I did, however, shoot a nasty glare at Tam. He glared right back. How, exactly, am I going to live the rest of my life in this orphanage with him? I don't really want to think about it right now, so don't bring it up.

I thanked Councilor Emery, and completely ignored Alina altogether. She was not exactly what I would call a "good nut". Perryling wandered around the room and looked at stuff, while Elaine was sprawled on her bunk, her fingers still working on the little thingy-ma-jig. I still wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to do… oh well. I could learn later. Let me just tell you, standing in that room, with nothing (literally nothing, no belongings, no personal things) but my cat, I felt, really felt, like an orphan. Anyways, I got over _that_ pretty quickly. I mean, I was going to be going to this Exilium place, which from what I gather from everyone's reactions, is a not-so-nice place. So apparently, I guess they're trying to make my already miserable situation even more miserable. Which I don't honestly think is possible right now.

I mean, everything may _look_ all shiny and pretty here, but I wasn't falling for it. I bet someone was going to rip away all of this and shout, 'SURPRISE!' and everything turn out to be a dump. I was going to _try_ to pretend like I was falling for their game. I am on alert though. Yeah. I am. Don't believe me? You can tell since my foot is barely tapping the ground. Anyways, Mr. Muffins curls up beside me and I pet him gently. It's only been a day without his food, and he already feels skinny. I'm telling you, I spoil and dote on my cat. I _love_ him. So let's just say I am planning on feeding Mr. Muffins like nobody's business.

Anyways, I flinch a little (read: a lot) and my hand darts instinctively to my leg. I whimper and try not to grimace. I fail miserably, though, when my lower lip wobbles a little. Tam snorts. "Suck it up Michelle–" " _Miette!_ " "What _ever_. Michelle, Miette, same difference." I growled as he brushed it off. When will he get my name right? I thought angrily. He was sprawled across what I assumed was his bed. It was all black, so I think that that in itself was self-explanatory. Linh sat on another bed, and she pointed to the one above her, where Elaine was working. "This one's Elaine's, and the one above Tam can be yours." I froze. "Wha-What? No! I can't sleep above him! How do I know he won't, like, undo the bunk and send me crashing to the ground?!" Tam opened one of his eyes. "What? Do you not trust me?" My lip curled in anger. "No! I don't trust you! Not. One. Bit!" He pretended to be hurt, then said sarcastically, "I don't care anyways. I won't bother myself with wasting my time on undoing your bedframe. I'd end up having to fix it anyways, and that would waste twice as much time as what taking it apart had."

I bristled. This guy was infuriating! I definitely won't get along with him. And I will never! Don't try to convince me otherwise. I grudgingly stepped up to look at the bed. It looked extremely rich and fancy. My jaw dropped. This _had_ to at least have cost a hundred dollars. For _just the pillow_. That's how expensive this looked. I'm talking high-quality, stain-free, soft, peach-colored cotton. Only it was way softer than cotton. I wanted to know what this stuff was. I got on top of it, and I felt like I was on a cloud. It was _that fluffy_. I smiled and leaned back against it. Tam hissed from the bottom bunk, "Cut it out! You're making a huge racket! Sheesh, you act like this is for royalty. This isn't even close to the best the Elvin World has to offer." My jaw dropped. I leaned over the side and hung on the railing of the top bunk. My hair was just long enough to hang around my upside-down face.

"Are you kidding me?! This stuff is extremely nice! This entire set would probably be around four thousand dollars in American dollars!" He rolled his eyes at me. "Stop grinning like that. You look like a moron." My smile faded into a scowl. I whipped back up on top of the bunk. I bounced a little, and I hardly felt the springs in the mattress. I swear, it must've been made out of down feathers. Only way less feathery. I put Mr. Muffins down and then went and started walking around the room. Elaine started chattering to me. "So did you know, that if you were to touch this purple swictox into the soil in the garden, you would be instantly paralyzed?" She was pointing to a purple wire-looking thing. I cleared my throat. "Excuse me… what is… swictox?" Elaine laughed. "Oh, it's an excellent conductor of soil-created hydroelectric energy. The soil converts water into electricity and then it travels through this branch of swictox and puts a couple of volts of electricity into you. I got a sample of soil from the human ground, but it didn't work… I think it only works with Elven soil." All of what she just said went into one of my ears, and out the other. I blinked. That made no sense whatsoever. What I gather, though, is that all of that basically sums up to this: put that twig into Elf dirt and you get electrocuted.

"OK…. I think I understood that." I said. Then I continued looking around. There was a small picture of a young smiling boy with an unhappy-looking girl. Even though she was smiling… if you looked really closely… her eyes and posture gave her away. The Linh in this photo… she was depressed. I looked at the younger Tam in this photo. He was happy (ish. He looked faintly angry in the pic, even though he was smiling) and his teeth showed in a bright grin. I looked over at Tam, whose arm was slung over his eyes. His chest rose and fell slowly. I compared Young Tam to Present Tam. They were so different. It was like Present Tam mirrored Young Linh and Present Linh mirrored Young Tam. I wondered what happened that made them switch personalities. The doorbell rang and I heard the keeper of the orphanage open the door. "Yes sir… I'll give it to her right away…" The keeper came up and handed me a parcel. His lip curled in disgust, and then turned into a cruel smirk. "The last human girl, however much of a hero, should've been tossed to Exilium the moment she got here. I'm glad to see the Councilors are correcting their mistakes and starting off right at the start. You won't start an interspecies war, because you won't get the chance. You're in Exilium, right where you should be. Human scum like you…"

Tam lifted his arm a little. "Brethel, shut up. Mickey–" " _Miette!_ " "–here isn't human scum. She's Elf. Which doesn't really make herself seem better… but she's ok. Only because she fights hard." I just realized that his nose was still crooked, and was swollen and purplish-blue. I thought he took medicine… He glared at me. As if reading my mind, he said, "My nose is _broken_. It's going to take longer to heal. It should be better in about an hour." He turned on his side and faced away from me. I glared. "I didn't want to be kidnapped!" Tam ignored me, and his breathing grew even. I turned away with a huff. I decided to open my package. Brethel was pretty much breathing down my neck, and he shadowed my every move. I picked up my uniform. I stared in horror at it. It was… well… completely black. The first thing I noticed was the silver pin. It had a black hand reaching out. I picked it up and rubbed the round, smooth edge of it. "A Shade's ability pin." Tam muttered without looking at me. I glanced at him. He was still turned away, but his shadow was watching me carefully. I rolled my eyes and went back to looking over my uniform. There was a silver-studded black half mask that covered the lower half of my face. The steel-toed boots, fitted black pants, black long-sleeved shirt, and gray vest with silver buckles and chains across the front screamed _tough stuff_. Under the collar of the vest is a hood that would cast my face in shadow. I nodded, impressed. "Whoever came up with this uniform has _style_ , I have to give them that. It's so awesome!" Tam snorted. "Not when you're in the middle of the desert and you're wearing _that_. You won't be thinking it's 'awesome' then."

I glowered. "Party-pooper. You're no fun." Linh jumped into the conversation (which, in my opinion, was a lost cause. It was mostly one-sided! I was doing the majority of the talking) and said, "What party? I do not see any of the… um… personal bathroom business going on either." I laughed a little. "It's a human term for a person who is no fun." Linh made an understanding sound. "Ohhhhhh… I see. You're saying that Tam is ruining the fun." I nodded quickly. "Right!" I smiled and Perryling stretched. "I think that Tam is a social recluse and will grow up to be a hermit." I glanced at her and we simultaneously burst out laughing. My shoulders shook and I let out an outburst of laughter. Tears streamed from both of our eyes and I felt something hit me in the back of my head. "Hey!" I shouted. Tam had thrown a pillow at my head. He flashed an angry scowl at me before throwing another. I caught the third that he threw, and I was up next to him in an instant. I smashed the pillow over his head and then dropped it. I wiped my hands together before saying calmly, "So Tam, will you end up being a hermit?" Perryling snorted. "Pfft. He totally will be. He seems so… gothic, or something. Emo? Punk? I mean, he likes all black, and he seems to hate the world–" " _Shut up!_ " Tam yelled. Perryling stopped. "Tam, I was just joking… it's a stereotype humans have for people who wear black and stuff… I didn't mean it offensively."

I glanced at Tam. He was clearly upset. I turned to Perryling. "Well if he's gothic, then you're a hippie!" I pointed at her tie-dye tee shirt. She mock-pouted. "Then you'd be a… a… a nerd." I gasped, and pretended to be wounded. "No! You… have revealed my greatest weakness… the fact… that I will do anything… for a good book…" I fell on the floor and went "BLERGH!" and pretended to be a possum (read: I played dead). I stuck my tongue out. Elaine looked up from her little doodad and gasped. "Oh no!" She had been so focused on her invention, she hadn't noticed the game going on. Tam growled, "She's just being an idiot." That irritated me. "Tam, will you cut it out? You're being a jerk." I snapped angrily. Tam shrugged. "Can you stop being an idiot?" I leapt up and glared.

Tam slung his arm back over his eyes and sighed. "Shut up so I can sleep." I started looking for something loud. Like an air horn, a trumpet, some drums, or something. I turned to Elaine. "Got anything loud?" I mouthed silently. She nodded her head quickly and fished around in her pocket. Then she gave me a small square that was barely the size of my palm and looked suspiciously like cardboard. I looked at it blankly until Elaine mimed pinching the box. I crept up beside Tam and held the box by his ear. My lips curled into a wide, evil smile. Not that I'm evil or anything, I mean I'm totally not. Anyways, I grinned wickedly and squeezed the box tightly.

A loud screaming filled the room, and my glasses shattered.

 **Again, I am so sorry for leaving for so long! If you are angry with me, then leave a review and yell at me (no cussing please), if you are relieved I am back and are happy, leave a review! If you are so elated that I'm back that you are currently throwing a** _ **ForeverFreeFall's Back!**_ **Party, then alllllright! Still, leave a review please. AND don't forget the anime recommendations! I am always looking for more anime to watch! No hentai (anime that shows two characters using the process that makes babies) or ecchi (anime that shows private body parts) though, and preferably no yaoi (same gender shipping). I have nothing against people who like the same gender romantically, it's just the way I was raised makes it uncomfortable for me to watch something like that. I am** _ **not**_ **trying to offend anyone! Please don't take offense!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I'll update as often as possible, but I can't promise anything! I've been super busy lately. I was gone in Alaska with no Wi-Fi and no cellular service.**

 **Hi: I forgot to put in the last chapter in response to your review that Perryling is there to support Miette. She's there so that Miette has a friend from her old life and so that she doesn't become too lonely. Perryling will be way more awesome in later chapters; she'll be cooler and will have a tremendously important role later. And I am so grateful for your review! #SmilesIsTheLongestWordEver**

 **Guest: Last chapter was meant to be a filler chapter. And don't worry! I appreciate your review! Thank you for your opinion, and I know Tam and Miette aren't really getting anywhere. Miette is based off of me, and I'm not one to rush into something. First I become friends with someone before the relationship gets farther. Really though, I've never been in a relationship. I'm about to go into high school and I haven't even had my first kiss… oh well! I'm not rushing anything. This story is what I would imagine my first relationship with a book character would turn out like. I also want Tam and Miette to build a steady friendship before anything happens. It's only been a day since Tam and Miette met, and I don't quite think they've made it past the acquaintance status yet. I don't plan on making them get together right away either.**

 **SophitzAwesome: Keep being awesome! Lol, I just love your username. You've watched Sword Art Online? Amazing! I know a few people who've watched it, but not that many. I'm so glad! When I got to the Oberon vs. Kirito stage (Season One Episode 24 ALO Arc), I literally wadded up my homework and just started chucking homework and pencils at the screen (I was in my science teacher's room and we were watching SAO on his computer, which was being projected onto the SMARTboard). I was furious at Oberon for touching Asuna like that! Only Kirito is allowed that liberty! So yeah… I nearly went out and bought an Oberon figurine just to rip its head off. I couldn't find one though, because the store was out-of-stock T_T #OberonShouldHideUnderARockBeforeIFindHim #IMakeOberonPay #ILiterallyPartiedWhenOberonWasSlicedUpAndStabbedInTheEye**

 **SwizzleSpice: OMG you're watching Toradora too? OMG what episode? I'm on the one where Ryuuji makes Taiga the pads to make her look less flat-chested. OMG they are so cute together! 3 BTW thanks for the recommendations! I can't wait to check them out! Miss Palmtop Tiger is my kinda character. She's a headstrong female lead, and isn't someone to mess with. #GirlPower**

 **Phew. Long AN. Sorry guys, I know the story is the good stuff. How about a few hints of fluff? Nah. Like I replied to Guest, I wouldn't rush a relationship, and since Miette is based off of me, I'm not making her rush the relationship with Tam either! But I guess… there can be a teensy bit of fluff. Prepare for obliviousness and clean (I don't write dirty stories. I'm looking at you! *points at random dirty-minded person in the crowd*) fluff! BTW anyone want a good slice of life/comedy/romance anime? Check out Kaichou wa Maid-Sama!, it's amazing! Yes, the ! mark is part of the title.**

I grabbed my glasses and pulled them off, then stared. Everything was now blurry, and everything looked like it was slightly closer to my face than what it actually was. I gave everything another onceover. There was a small shift in my vision; the desk looked like it was a bit closer to the ceiling. I wailed, "Oh no! My glasses!" I hadn't packed my other pair of glasses since I hadn't been warned of being kidnapped. So now I didn't have a good pair of glasses, and Tam was now _furious_. His face was blotched red with rage. "YOU IDIOT!" He screamed. A series of pillows and not-so-nice words were flung at me. After the pillows, he ran out of things to throw, and then… a shoe hit me in the back of my head. Another one followed that. Soon a few kids came into the room, looking sleepy. They rubbed their eyes, and then were all staring open-mouthed and wide-eyed at Tam, who was still cursing at me. I pointed to the door. "Guys, not a good time right now…" I whispered. Tam finally stopped chucking stuff at me and stopped cussing me out. His eyes were narrowed in fury, and I stared at him. I bit my lip. Honestly… I thought it was funny. He thinks words are going to bother me? "Pfft…" I giggled behind my hand. Tam's eyes narrowed. "What's so funny?" He snapped. I waved my hand halfheartedly and dismissed his question. "None of your biz." I replied.

Tam's face was cold and stony. I turned away to hide my goosebumps and clapped my hands together. I smiled at the kids. "Don't be afraid! It's ok, I'm sure Tam didn't mean it…!" I shot Tam a look when the kids didn't respond. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Sure, kids. I didn't mean that." He said sarcastically. I huffed. That guy was awful. I patted the little girl on the head. Her big blue eyes were cloudy with sleep. Did I mention I have a soft spot for little kids? I picked her up and stroked her hair. "It's ok… he's just a jerk who has nothing else to do but rain on others' parades…" I could feel Tam's anger rolling off in waves, but I pretended I didn't. I heard a rustle and a sigh. Tam was back to going to sleep. I took the little boys by their hands and herded them back to their rooms.

The little girl was already asleep and drooling. The wet puddle on my shoulder was really disgusting, but I could always wash the shirt later… oh wait. I didn't have any other shirts with me. Shoot. After I put the kids in bed, I decided to try my luck and ask if Perryling had brought any shirts with her. My luck was in favor, and she handed me a shirt. I sighed. It had a bird on the front. I'm ok with birds, I just don't like hawks or birds like that. They try to eat your pets. Once, Mr. Mittens had almost gotten eaten. I had cried for hours until the vet said he'd be ok. I changed in the bathroom, since I didn't trust that Tam was really asleep. When I came out, Elaine had finished the little device. "Ta-da! One paralysis device, coming right up!" I backed up immediately. I did not want to be the test subject. What if something went horribly wrong?! Elaine giggled. "It won't hurt! Just immediate paralysis! The swictox isn't dangerous… I think…" I backed away. "You _think?!_ " I didn't trust anything someone says that they _think_ isn't dangerous.

Elaine sighed. "Well I don't think it'll hurt anyone… I mean it may sting a bit since it's still having to do with a little bit of electricity… but it won't kill you!" The last part was said happily with a cheerful smile. I gaped at her until Tam said gruffly, "Shut your trap, you'll catch narsikes."

I said bluntly, "Don't you mean _flies_ , genius? Sheesh, you're so stupid." I said it rudely. I immediately felt guilty though. I wasn't a mean person, and I felt really bad for being nasty. I turned red with shame, and I murmured quietly, "I'm sorry Tam, you aren't stupid…" I looked down and then he said, "I meant to say narsikes. They're more common than flies, and they're also poisonous. That's why you don't see any of us with our mouths open for too long." I frowned. He caught my look and added, "They only affect Elves." My lip curled in disgust. I mean, who would name something a _narsike_? That's just weird.

Elaine grabbed my hand. "Here we go, Miette! Don't worry, we can always call Elwin if anything goes horribly wrong!" Elaine slapped the device on my arm and then put dirt on my hand. I felt a tingle start and then it felt like a big, fat, ugly wasp stabbed my hand. I opened my mouth to scream and instead of sound coming out I just fell over, unable to move. I just lay there and watched Tam look over. I couldn't even scowl when he smirked. He crouched down beside my head and leered, his face close to mine. It made my cheeks turn pink, something I was thoroughly ashamed of. My cheeks, those traitors!

"Ha, look who can't move! Marla–" I would've corrected him, but I couldn't since I was _paralyzed!_ He noticed and grinned before continuing, " _Marla!_ Watch this Marla!" He cackled and then poked my cheek. My phobia of people touching my face kicked in and I wished I could kick him. All the germs that had probably been sitting on his finger… were now on my face. I was chanting 'EW' over and over again in my head. This was so disgusting! He grinned evilly and went to the bathroom. A couple minutes later I heard the toilet flush and no water running. He came out of the bathroom and OH GOSH HE DIDN'T WASH HIS HANDS. He wiggled his fingers and they got closer to my face. Oh how I wished I could run away. But I couldn't, so I was stuck dealing with him.

I really didn't want to be touched with dirty hands though. I swear, if he touches me with those dirty hands of his, I will hurt him… and possibly amputate his hands. But that's only a possibility! I mean it's not like I'd really do that…. I'm not evil…. I struggled to get out of the paralysis and it made me mad when his fingers got closer to my face. I growled deep in my throat but he ignored it. Tam laughed and poked my cheek. I closed my eyes and I unconsciously started to cry.

My cheek burned where he had poked it and it felt like it was crawling with germs. I was internally freaking out since I was paralyzed at the moment. A small keening noise sounded and it took me a couple of moments to realize it came from me. My cheeks were soaked with tears and then I heard him mutter, "Did you really think I didn't wash my hands? I didn't use the bathroom in the first place…" I felt like a fool now. I cried harder, feeling stupid and childish. I was so embarrassed, thinking he hadn't washed his hands. I should've known it was a prank.

The invisible weight that held me down and paralyzed me disappeared and I curled into fetal position. You know, when you put your head on your knees and wrap your arms around your legs and pull them close to your chest? That's the fetal position. I kept crying, because I really felt like a fool. I didn't move for a little while and then I stood up. I got up onto my bunk and hid under the covers. Tam said quietly, "Sorry…" I looked at him and shot him a filthy look and then turned back around and hid my head. I touched my cheek and scowled. I definitely didn't like him. If I said he was a decent guy before, in any of the previous chapters, forget it. I don't like him at all. He is evil and mean. I scrubbed my face with the blanket, hoping it would make the torrent of tears stop.

It didn't.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, as an apology for not updating in so long, I'm going to work as hard as I can to publish as many chapters as I can. Thank you guys for putting up with the irregularity of my updating! I'm so sorry for being such a meanie… I need to get a regular updating schedule…**

 **Featherlight of Nightclan: Are you a Warriors fan? And thank you for the review! I did base Miette off of me, and I am most certainly NOT flawless or perfect. I make mistakes and I have my quirks and weird qualities, but that makes me who I am! I am very glad that you like her! It makes me really happy when people like my characters.**

 **Strikestar: Yes! Miette and Tam will be the ship in this story. I will try not to do so much with Sophie's ships, since I am trying my hand at a story that isn't directly focused on Sophie.**

 **Guest: Hmm… You make a good point about Elaine. I'm not sure… I mean that's a plot hole. I guess she can be in on the prank. Perryling too. Um… Miette will take a while to start liking Tam as a friend, and it'll take longer for her to like him as something more. I want to take the time for them to get a good relationship, so that it can grow and develop and not be a shallow, cliché relationship like love at first sight. I would never do that, so I won't let Miette fall for him immediately. The best romances are with characters that learn to trust and accept each other for who they are.**

 **ANYWAYS! IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AHEAD:**

 **This is my favorite chapter so far :P**

 **Haha gotcha didn't I? You thought I was going to say something like I'm leaving and never coming back weren't you? Or maybe that I was discontinuing this story? HA! Never. Anyways, this chapter is a bit more serious than the other chapters. I'm not afraid of boys as much as I had been, but I am slightly afraid sometimes. Nothing inappropriate has ever happened to me, but I was bullied really badly in fifth grade. I mean really badly. But it's nothing to do with M rated stuff. That has never, and as far as I'm concerned, will never happen. I can defend myself. SO… onto the story! Again, this chapter is more serious than the others.**

 **Enjoy!**

I sighed and finally came out of my hiding place from inside the sheets. I went to the small bathroom and didn't bother shutting the door. Everyone was asleep anyways. I wasn't doing anything but washing my face either, so there really wasn't a point in shutting the door. I put some soap on the rag I found and then washed my cheek. I scrubbed at it for a while, determined to get off all the germs. After a while I gave up on just my cheek and washed my whole face.

I looked up and stared at my puffy eyes and previously tearstained cheeks. Some of my hair was clumped together from drying in clusters when it got wet from the tears. I looked away and then felt a hand on my shoulder. I startled, jumping a little in surprise. It was Tam. I scowled and jerked away from him. "Go away." Tam ran a hand over his face and then looked away. "Look, I really am sorry…"

I snapped angrily, "You're a jerk, did you know that? A mean jerk. I hate it when people touch my face and you know that. You touched my face anyways and you played a cruel prank on me." Tam looked down, his thick black hair shading his eyes. "Mia–" I whirled around and slammed my fist into the door beside his head. I looked up at him and shouted, "My name is MIETTE! Get that through your thick skull!" I was able to peek up under his bangs for just a second and his eyes had widened a fraction of an inch. I glared up at him and then his shoulders sagged. "I know I'm a jerk… I know I'm mean… but you don't understand. You really won't understand." I looked up at him, my eyes narrowed. "Say it. Say my name. Say it so you'll know it and you won't forget it." I glared, and my hand started to hurt a little. Maybe I used a little too much force…?

Tam was silent for a while and then he muttered, "Ok." My jaw twitched and I waited for him to say it. After a couple of minutes of waiting, I was having difficulty holding myself back from slapping him. Instead, I growled softly, "Say it. Say it _now_." Tam mumbled something I couldn't understand. "What? Tam, _say it so I can hear it._ " Tam lowered his head even further and mumbled again, a bit louder. I hissed in frustration and grabbed his ear and pulled.

"Spit it out so I can hear you!" I shouted in his ear. Before I could blink he had me pinned against the wall and was speaking in my ear softly, his breath tickling my ear and making me swallow nervously. I wasn't a big kid. I wasn't tough, or strong. In fact, Tam was taller, stronger, and he was currently holding me against the wall. I couldn't really move, and I was choking back fear. I had always been afraid of boys since I was in fifth grade, due to some bullying issues. It's gotten better and I'm not really as afraid as I had been, and I'm almost completely over it, but this situation with Tam right now was making me uneasy. "Ok then… Miette… are you happy now? I got your name right… so you shouldn't be complaining anymore… ok, Miette?" I nodded quickly, anxious to be out of this situation. My heart rate was escalating as my fear grew. Tam leaned closer and then said even more quietly in my ear, "Something wrong?" I sank down a little, cringing away from him, until I was sitting on the floor. Tam leaned his head against the wall and then said, "Tell me something you don't want anyone else to know."

I looked up at him and I muttered, "Back away from me and stop cornering me and then I'll tell you." I figured I'd just tell him he's pretty cute. I mean, he was, but I wouldn't admit that to anyone. And plus, that was pretty embarrassing to tell someone you thought they were cute. Or maybe I should say good-looking, I've noticed some guys get offended if you call them cute. It's happened before, and I don't want a repeat of that. I worriedly watched him as he got up slowly and backed away. He sat across from me and then said, "Make it serious, not something stupid. Like, why were you afraid of me?" I glared and then said bitterly, "You kidnapped me and forced me to be an orphan by making it seem like I died and made me cry. I don't know, why would I possibly be afraid of you?" Sarcasm oozed through my voice and dripped on every word after _I don't know._ I glared at him and he sighed. "I said I'm sorry about earlier…"

I snapped at him, "That doesn't make it right. My parents think I'm dead! My friends, except for Perryling, think I'm dead! My teachers, classmates, neighbors, they all think I'm dead! And it's all your fault! If you hadn't kidnapped me I would never have been put through all of this!" I paused and then muttered, "I'm sorry… I… I sound so selfish don't I? I sound likes it's all about me… and it's not. I shouldn't be complaining, this place is nice and there are nice people like Elaine, Linh, and sometimes even you… and all I'm doing is complaining… there are people out there dying in wars to protect their homes and their countries and their families, and I'm just sitting here in a bathroom whining about silly things that I shouldn't be whining about…"

Tam was looking for me and then he murmured, "Do you think it's ok to kill someone if it prevents more deaths from happening?" I looked up at Tam and thought for a moment. "Hmm… I think that killing should try to be avoided and that there could always be another solution… but… that would be a child's fantasy. I have to accept that sometimes you can't avoid killing. Sometimes, there will be an instance where it's your life or their life, or their life or the lives of others. In those situations… when one person has to go… I think it's that the death should be quick. I think the person who has to go shouldn't suffer. That would be cruelty if the other dragged out the death by torturing the other person before killing them."

Tam asked me, and it made me wonder about why the sudden spark of questions, "Do you hate people… do you hate people who have killed people? Even if they were forced to kill people because it was life or death, would you still hate them?"

"I… I don't hate them… I mean if they had to kill them because they were corrupting the world and killing people and doing, like, massacres and genocides… then I think that I don't hate them… I think that they had to do awful things for the betterment of the rest of the people…" Tam lowered his head and said quietly, "Miette… Miette I'm not a good person… Miette I've killed people… I've… I've killed people…" I went quiet and stared at him. Now that I thought about it, he seemed… a little… off. Maybe… maybe he was suffering PTS. That stands for post-traumatic stress. Or stress after a traumatizing event. That could explain why he had bags under his eyes and wasn't sleeping. It could explain why his skin was so pale. I had a thought. Maybe it could be from… "Nightmares. I get nightmares." His voice was quickened and he looked like he regretted telling me. I stared at him and then I reached out and patted his knee. Even though I don't like him, it's hard not to feel bad. I wouldn't outright tell him that I pity him, because I can tell he's not the type of person who would take pity very well.

"How'd you know I was thinking that you had…?" I trailed off, seeing his shadow's hand touching my shadow's foot and overlapping slightly. He looked up at me, his lips curled up in a small smile. "Miette… don't hate me… please…" I looked at him curiously, because he seemed to me like he was… well, kind of split. Like he wanted to mess with me and annoy me and then he turned around and immediately made me think he was trying to do the exact opposite. It made my head spin, trying to figure him out. I stared at him and then I asked, "What game are you playing? What do you want from me?"

He was quiet and stared back before replying, "I want healing." I blinked. "Say wha…?" Tam sighed and muttered, "I want you to help me… to heal me… I think you can see that I'm not really a people person… I'm not the best socialist…" I responded with, "Are you saying you want me to be your friend?" He nodded mutely. I snorted and said, "You have to earn trust and respect and you gotta prove you're a good friend. Right now you're an acquaintance. You haven't really acted like a friend at all." He lowered his head. "That's why I want your help…"

I stood up and held my hand out to him. "You should try sleeping… it'll help you feel better…" He took my hand and I helped him up, surprised he actually took my help without complaint. He pulled out a drawer and muttered, "I can't sleep… Nightmares aren't going to let me sleep…" I looked through the drawer and picked out what looked like eye drops and a vial of sludge. "What are these?" He looked at them and then said, "The little one is somnalene, the nectar from a starglass flower. It helps calm you down so you can sleep. The other is a sedative to drug you into sleeping. I don't want to take either of them." I sighed. I put the sedative back and said, "What's wrong with the eye drops?" He looked away. "I don't want to be caught depending on something to soothe myself into being calm enough to sleep." I sighed and said, "Go lay down. You're going to take the eye drops whether you want to or not."

I pushed him towards the bottom bunk and he struggled. "No! I'm not going to take that!" I pushed him down. "No. Lay down. Relax. You need to sleep or else you'll get into a pattern of not sleeping. Sleep is something you need, or else you'll be too tired to function properly." He sighed and I pulled the blankets up around him and tucked him in. I was in mother mode, a mode I get into when someone's injured or needs comforting or needs someone to act like a mother. Trust me, many people have told me I'd make a good mother. Even the librarian's told me that (true story, lots of teachers and the librarian have told me that I'm very responsible and I'd make a good parent).

On with the story now, since we want to know what happens next. I brushed his bangs out of his eyes and I told him to keep his eyes open. I carefully placed a drop of the somnalene into each of his eyes and after a couple of minutes I heard him take a sharp intake of breath, and the slight scowl on his face relaxed into a, what I assume, is a look of wonder. He closed his eyes and I watched him as his face slowly grew calm. "Wow… thanks…" I barely heard the whispered words escape his lips. I shook my head and stared at the drops. This thing must be pretty powerful, if it could bring a look of peace onto Tam's face.

I smiled and put them away and then crawled into bed. I yawned and pulled the sheets around myself.

I was going to start school tomorrow.

Oh, joy.

 **Woo-hoo! My favorite chapter (so far)! Tam and Miette are slowly progressing into the not-hating stage of their relationship. They still don't like each other very much, but they're getting there! Tell me what you guys think in the reviews please! It's just that tiny little button right there at the bottom of the page… *puppy dog eyes***


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! I wrote this chapter on my phone and then I uploaded it onto my computer, so I think this will work out pretty well! It'll mean I can write some chapters when I go to school and stuff! Not in class, but like before, after, during free time, and during lunch! I love you guys! You guys make writing stories fun! I like to know if you guys hate/dislike/like/love my stories so please leave reviews!**

 **Strikestar and Featherlight of Nightclan: Awesome! I'm a fan of Warriors myself, so I'm so excited to hear that you guys like Warriors! I hope you guys like this chapter, it's the one where Miette starts Exilium!**

 **ThatsencenboyXD: OMG username brain overload XD I love it! Thank you for reviewing on almost all the chapters! I was so happy :P**

 **Guest: Hey, Miss/Mister/Mrs. Guest! There's a lot of guests in the world. So whichever guest this is, I wanna say thank you for the review!**

 **Cats666: I love cats. Lol that came outta nowhere. Love your username! Do you really think Tam and Miette are cute together? :**

 **THENightWarrior410: I couldn't stop the caps lock. I guess it just had a mind of its own, thinking that it needed to stress that you were** _ **the**_ **night warrior. Lol! ;) I'm just kidding, my caps lock has no brain. It does what I tell it to do, like a good little key. XD it was alright to stress the** _ **the**_ **, right?**

 **Whew. *wipes nonexistent sweat off forehead* Author's note is over! Enjoy the chapter!**

I woke up to a fairly okay day, and the first thing I noticed was that everyone else was asleep. I poked Tam and he grumbled for a little bit before opening his eyes. "What?" He snapped. I glared at him and asked just as snappily, "Why aren't you guys getting up for school?" He glared for a little bit before saying, "You interrupted my sleep." I glared for a little while more and then he sighed and said, "FoxFire doesn't go to school today because we have a break today." I blinked and he added smugly, "Exilium doesn't get a break." I gaped and then smiled. "Awesome! More school days!" He blanched and then laughed. "I don't think you understand what kind of school Exilium is. It's focused on delinquents and people who don't fit in and it doesn't focus on smarts. It focuses on physical abilities that don't include Elven abilities."

I swallowed a little nervously. "I'm not a very athletic person… I really can only swim. I can't run very fast… I can't really lift weights since I'm not particularly strong…" I trailed off, unsure if I should continue. Tam had a smirk on his face. I asked him, "How did the somnalene work for you?" He stiffened and put his finger to his lips. "Shhhhh! Don't say that so loud! Someone'll hear and it'll be over for me!" I giggled a little. Then I glared in triumph. "I've got blackmail material!" His pale face turned paler. I mean, if that was possible and stuff. He already looked like a ghost. Then he glared and his shadow stretched towards me threateningly. I backed away a little bit and he hissed quietly, "You better not tell anyone about that! Or else!"

I snickered and said, "Or else what?" He smirked. "Or else I'll go hire a Washer to erase all your memories." I pretend gasped. "Oh, no, that's just _so_ terrible!" I snickered because really, people who could take away memories? Pfft. Impossible. Nonexistent. No can do, dude.

But… could it really be impossible? So many of the Elves had crazy abilities… I mean… could brainwashing be all that impossible? Tam smirked. "Ha! I got you, Marl… I mean, Miette…" I softened a little bit and then murmured, "Did you sleep well? You look much better than you did before… Did you get nightmares?" Tam's eyes slid to the side and he stared at the wall. I could sense he was about to lie about something. "I slept well… No nightmares!" I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. Tam looked up. "Fine. I slept well. But I did get nightmares." He clamped his mouth shut and I knew that he wasn't going to say anything else about the subject now. I pulled down my pillow and dropped the bottle of somnalene into it. "Tam, tonight you'll be taking this again. I'll also try to find something for nightmares." He blinked, and that was the most reaction I got from him. I sighed and put my pillow back up on my bunk. "Rest as much as you can, Tam." Then I realized that we were being _way_ too friendly for my liking. I gave him a good kick on the shin and then ran to the bathroom to change into my uniform.

I looked at myself in the mirror and realized my cheeks were pink. I stifled a screech of embarrassment and quickly changed. I finished putting on my uniform and looked at myself. The uniform was a little too big, so I didn't look like a girl. Especially with my hair put inside the hood. You couldn't tell which gender I was! That creeped me out a little so I pulled some of my hair out of the hood. Ok, looking better. I just didn't want to be mistaken as a boy. Once, when my hair was really short, someone mistook me for a boy. Trust me, that is one thing a person can _never_ recover from. It haunts you forever, and you can never look at that person the same way again. Some people had looked at me weird. They also would say things about me that would make me go, 'Excuse me, I'm not a girl who thinks of other girls romantically!' I have nothing against those kinds of people. It's not my place to judge people. I accept them for who they are. It did bother me though that people thought I was interested in girls because my hair was short. Was it so hard to believe that I just thought having short hair was easier to maintain, especially since I competitively swam every day? It's easier to tuck short hair into those rubber swim caps than to stuff long hair in!

And yeah, I know you can always just put your hair up in a bun or a ponytail. My hair tie would get stuck in my hair though, once my hair was wet, so I didn't like having to throw away all those hair ties that had to be cut out or had snapped. It was a waste of perfectly good hair ties! So I just cut my hair short. Now that I think about it… that's when… all the guys in my class started avoiding me…. **(My life in a nutshell. Now that I realize it, maybe I shouldn't have cut over ten inches of hair off… the guys all looked at me like I was an alien freak or something… the only guy who wanted to dance with me at the last formal dance of the school year was a delinquent… it was so awkward and you could smell his cologne from all the way across the gym… my eyes burned so bad, I swear I cried… right afterwards I grabbed my mom and hightailed it outta there.)**

I laughed a little nervously to myself. Anyways, away from my depressing and lame boy life… that doesn't seem to exist… I slumped a little and Tam pushed the door in. He walked in and then yawned. He stretched and then put his foot up on the toilet seat. I shuddered and then snapped, "What are you doing, just coming in here unannounced?! I could've been using the toilet or showering or… or… or I could've been still getting dressed!" Tam yawned again and rolled the edge of his pajama pants up. He inspected where I had kicked him. I was actually surprised a bruise was forming. That made me feel guilty… He dropped the fabric and yawned again. "Ugh… I'm still tired…" I was getting kind of mad. He just completely avoided my question! He looked over at me and slowly looked me up and down. I was very glad my face was covered by a mask and a hood. He snorted softly. "You're dressed though, so what's the fuss? You're making a big deal out of nothing… unless…" He wiggled his eyebrows. I gasped. "Ew! You're disgusting! I am not staying in here with you!" I ran out of the bathroom and then slammed the door. Tam stomped out after me. "Miette, did you really think I was being serious? That's stupid if you thought that." I glared and then hit him. "I'm going to school." I skipped breakfast and went out. I ran down the steps and my shadow darted under me. I screamed and it swallowed me up.

Next thing I knew, I was spit out and then dragged up into a tree. I hung upside down from a rope, my ankle tied tightly. I screamed at how far up I was. If I were to fall, I'd probably break my neck. I had been trapped. And to make matters worse, some people in a purple cloak, a blue cloak, and a red cloak were holding my shadow back. I was mad at Tam now. Did he know that this was going to happen?! "TAM! TAM I BET YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS! TAM YOU JERK I AM GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS!" A few whispers came out of the bushes and I saw quite a few people wearing the same black uniform as me. I struggled to get out of the rope. Even though I have pretty good core strength, I couldn't curl all the way up to grab the rope. I hung there, staring at the world from hanging upside down in a tree. I sighed and then started to swing back and forth. I liked swinging, ever since I was little I would swing on… well… the swings. I didn't see the branch in front of my face and swung right into it. I quickly scrambled to grab the branch, not going to lose my chance. I held onto the branch and scooted towards the tree trunk. Last thing I needed was for the branch to break underneath me.

As soon as I had a stable seat on the thicker end of the branch, I started working on untying the complicated knot. I pried at it and scratched at it and at one point (I was desperate) I started chewing on it. Then I chewed the part of the rope right above the knot. I knew I couldn't chew through a knot (it was too big), but I did know I could chew through one strand of rope. I know I probably seemed extremely weird. There was a person, sitting in a tree, chewing a rope. I bet if someone looked up from afar, I bet they would be thinking, "What is that overgrown chipmunk doing?!" I sighed and then finally the rope fell away. I looked down. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, _no._ I was _really_ high up, now that I thought about it.

How am I going to get down now?

 **I'm sorry it's so short! I really didn't mean for it to be so short… I just got back from my grandparents' house, so I'm exhausted and tired. But, I have this chapter and I shall give it to you! Oh, BTW, please review! =(^w^)= -that's a kitty cat face :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**I've got nothing to say except that I'm sorry. Ninth grade is so hard, and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work I have. I really don't have any choice but to put this story on hiatus until I can clear out some of the work I have. I know that the chapter is short, but I have so much work to do and this is the best I can give. I'm not discontinuing this story, I'm just putting it on hold.**

 **Chapter 8**

I stared down at the ground. Ok… I'm afraid of heights. I think I said that before. But anyways, I was about ready to pee myself. I was that scared. I slumped, holding onto the tree for dear life. I closed my eyes, silently screaming at Tam. I opened my eyes and searched below me for a branch I could maybe get down to. All the branches were too far down and were really thin. If I jumped, I could possibly lose my balance and fall. Which was probably the most likely outcome. Either that, or the branch would break if I landed on it. I winced and held onto the tree tighter. My hands trembled as I looked for handholds in the gnarls of the tree bark. I shakily gripped the branch and started to lower myself down. Sweat rolled down my back **(gross, back sweat :0)** and my palms started to sweat.

My foot searched for a hold and I struggled to reach. I managed to stretch out and reach the branch below me. I felt tears slide down my cheeks, the ground seeming to warp and shrink. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down. I did not want to have a full-blown panic attack, not when people in the same uniform as me were hanging out below. I'd never be able to live it down! I squeezed my eyes shut tight and then lowered down slowly to the next branch. I let out a shaky sigh of relief and then kept going. I have to keep in mind that this is not the same as when I went rock climbing at an amusement park. At that time, I had a harness and people who looked friendly. There were people below, ready to catch me if the harness failed and something went wrong. Looking down now, all I saw were faces hidden by masks, emotions hidden deep within their eyes, thoughts hidden behind the walls of defense built up in themselves. I shuddered. Even yesterday, when I fell out of that tree when Tam was there, was better than this. I stepped down to the next branch, nearly flipping out when it creaked and dipped hazardously low because of my weight.

I took a deep breath and said to myself, "I'm like a feather. So lightweight, so little, you barely feel it…" I took the next step down to the branch and bit my lip hard when it snapped and fell. I hung from the branch above me and then scooted over to the tree trunk. So much for being a feather… I wrapped my arms and legs around the tree trunk and started scooting down. I didn't look down, because if I did, I'd throw up. I just knew it. It didn't help that the sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds, and it was getting _hot_. I panted and sweat rolled down my face. Now I see why Tam was talking about how I wouldn't actually like the black uniforms. I kept scooting, and when I looked down, I was able to keep my vision straight enough to see that the ground wasn't very far off. I smiled in relief and started scooting down again. I scooted until my butt hit a branch and I sat on it. I looked down and judged that I had about ten feet to go. I went back to the tree and started scooting down again. I misjudged the distance **(sigh. Oh how I hate when I do that, especially when I'm judging how many meters left in the lap. I'm a swimmer, so I'm talking about an Olympic sized pool. Our school's new pool is the size that the Olympians use :D)** , and I found myself falling the last three feet. I landed on my bum, wincing.

I knew it'd likely bruise. There was no way it wouldn't. I got up stiffly, and the three people came over – the ones in the red, purple, and blue cloaks. I scowled up at them, feeling outraged. "What?" I was snappish, and I didn't really care. I knew I should be polite, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. My butt was hurting too much, and it hurt worse knowing that they had just stood by. I could've _died_. The tree was _huge_. I scowled harder and snapped angrily, "I'm gonna go home if no one has anything good to say about why I was in a tree and why no one tried to help me." The purple one – he or she had two hands on his or her cloak – stopped me and said, "You'll be in my group. You are not permitted to leave until class ends." I growled under my breath, "Right, right. I get it." With that, my first day of school had started.

 **I know. It's an** _ **extremely**_ **short chapter. When I get back, though, the chapters will be back to normal.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! I'm back for a little while! I finally snagged a good time to write when I got a break from all the homework I've had :) I'm so happy! I recently got a new haircut, and my hair is so short! I also got bangs too! My hair goes down to the bottom of my ears. It's like a boy cut, only not shaved. It's like a long boy cut. It's so much easier to take care of, though, and I like it! I hope everyone will like this chapter almost as much as I like my hair! :)**

I felt my stomach growl loudly, even though we had just eaten a bowl of… slime. Surprisingly, though, it tasted like beef stew and buttered bread! I was now sitting in a hot tent while Cloak Guy droned on and on with his lecture. I stifled the urge to yawn loudly, and I tried to snap myself into focusing. I heard the lecture, but there's a saying that says, "Hearing and listening are two different things. Anyone can hear, but it takes concentration and focus to listen." I don't remember who said that, but it was an accurate quote. Sure, I was _hearing_ the lecture. That didn't mean I was _listening,_ though. I sighed and then sensed a shift in the tone. I looked around. A lot of the kids were groaning and whining. One of the black-cloaked kids – I think that this one was a girl – started complaining about how she couldn't swim. I perked up. "Swimming? Awesome!" I leapt to my feet and started pulling off my cloak. In seconds my feet were swept out from beneath me and I was laying on the ground on my back. I stared up, stunned.

My face burned with humiliation when my fellow classmates started snickering. I stood back up, and squared my shoulders. I mean, yeah, I'm ashamed (more than I'd like to admit…), but it's not like I know these people. Heck, I don't even know what their faces looked like, let alone their names! Why should I care what they think? This made it much easier to keep my pride and dignity in tact – although perhaps I should stop thinking about my pride… Anyways, I looked up at the kid who kicked my feet out from under me. "What'd you do that for? It wasn't very nice." The kid snickered. "Who said anything about you getting to swim? You're the newest member. You get to clean up after were done swimming, and you'll get to do that until a new person comes in." I glared. I wanted to hit this guy, but I didn't want to get in trouble. I'd never hear the end of it from Tam. I could almost hear his snarky voice saying, 'Marlee, you got suspended from school on your first day for fighting?' and I'd respond with a frustrated, 'It's Miette! My name is Miette!'

I knew that wouldn't happen though, since I made Tam call me Miette before I used that eye-droppy stuff. A small smile spread on my face. Tam… I liked arguing with him. It was refreshing. Especially since I secretly found that arguing with him made me want to laugh (of course, don't tell him I said that! His ego would swell to an unhealthy size… even though it already _is_ at an unhealthy size…).

I sighed. Tam would have to get pushed out of my mind for now. The burly boy towered over me as he snarled, "What are _you_ smiling about?" I glared, my smile slipping away. "Back off. There's this thing called personal space, and you're invading mine." I did _not_ like how this guy was all up in my face… or would it be all down in my face? I mean, he's like a foot and a half taller than me… so he'd be bending down to get in my face…

I shook it off and backed up. He followed me. _How cliché can this get? Can't he take a hint? This isn't a story, so he doesn't have to be all stereotypical!_ I puffed out my chest and tried to look taller. It wasn't really working though… I'm still a painful five-foot-four-and-a-half-inches tall… I swallowed nervously. Why must I be so short? I whipped around. "Whatever. I'll clean up after your lazy self." He glared. "Excuse me? Lazy? I am not lazy. I'm making sure the newbs pull their weight around here." I turned to stare pointedly. " _Exactly!_ You're making sure that we newbs pull _our_ weight. Not _your_ weight." The guy walked past me and pushed me aside. Of course, graceful me toppled over into the dirt. I didn't mind the dirt though. What I did mind, though, was the jerk's next comment. "You're lucky I don't hit girls." Was he implying I couldn't fight back? _Was he?_ I couldn't figure out if he was or not. Was it a flat out insult, or was it an indirect, underhand insult? _Was it even an insult at all?!_

I shook my head angrily. Do I speak out against his comment or not?! I could totally fight back, but what if that's what he wants? What if he _wants_ me to fight? What if he's provoking me? If I didn't fight would they think I can't fight? Or would they think I'm just not interested? If I fight, then I'll get suspended! But if I don't fight, then my toughness might get questioned! What do I do?!

 **Hey guys… short chapter, I know… I actually wrote this chapter a month ago, but I couldn't find time to do the ending… so I just finished it, one month later! I know this is a bit selfish of me, but can everyone leave a comment? I'd like to know if the majority of my readers want Miette to fight back or be passive about it. Or maybe I'll go with the minority. Who knows? :P**


	10. Chapter 10

**OMG guys… can my lovely readers get anymore lovely? That's a rhetorical question, because the answer is obviously no. You guys are as lovely as readers get! I couldn't imagine a fandom without the readers. Just as books need their authors, we authors need our readers! And readers need their books… so to throw in a little biology terms, would this be considered a circle of mutualism? Or would it be commensalism? Wow… I feel like this is a '** _ **which came first, the chicken or the egg'**_ **situation. Lol, I just wanted to shout out to a very special reviewer (he/she reviewed on my FoxFire Academy story, but… I didn't read it until today… and it was posted July of 2016… and it is now February of 2017… apologies…), and he/she is…**

 **NightWarrior410! I am so happy that you see us authors as a circle of friends! That's really not just us though, anyone who loves KOTLC (no matter who the ship is, I'm a loyal Sokeefe fan and I have Sophitz friends who I absolutely adore) is considered to be part of the Keeper family. To be honest, I love everyone who loves Keeper. I'm thinking of how to put this as I type, but… the Keeper fandom is like a community of non-related family. KOTLC, the fanfic authors, the reviewers… they were a safe haven for me. I love Keeper with a passion I just can't put into words. I'm grateful for Keeper and for Mrs. Messenger for writing it, because it got me through some tough stuff. It was a sweet escape. You don't have to be an author for you to be our friend! I love writing, and I always write – not just for me – but for everyone. I try to write stories that make people feel inspired and imaginative. To sum it all up into a small chunk, I want everyone to feel good about themselves when they read my fics. One theme that I hope people picked up on from this fic is that everyone has flaws, and those flaws make us beautiful. I wove pieces of myself into Miette; I put my flaws in her, because I'm not afraid to share them. I embrace the flaws that I was given.**

 **Wow… I just realized how off-topic this got… but oh well. Whoever reads this author's note, I hope that you embrace the imperfect, wonderful, unique, quirky flaws that you have. I think that the most confident people out there are the ones who look at their flaws and say, "You know what? I love you flaws. You make me, me. There's no one else exactly like me, and that makes me special." So… if anyone read this, can I ask if you want to share a fun flaw that you have? It's totally optional, so don't feel as if you have to say. On with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Keeper. I'm not Shannon Messenger, a super cool author who's my role model. And I am not Alessia Cara, who sings Scars to Your Beautiful.**

I glared for so long at this guy, I swear there were holes in his head from my non-existent laser-vision. I stood up and dusted myself off. I was not going to take the bait. "Look, she's a little wuss… won't even stand up for hersel–" Screw it, self-conscience! _I am not a wuss!_ I whipped around and slapped him straight across the cheek. Where did all this bravery come from? Hm. I'll call it the Elf Effect. I would've never dared to hit someone before! I mean yeah, I'd think about it… but really, I've only taken action now that I moved here. Oh, I forgot to mention… _my hand hurts!_ I had tingles and stinging all over my hand! OW! _Oh gosh, why did I think it looked good to fight back?! How come it looks so good in the movies?! I do NOT feel like a boss right now!_ I was screaming in my head, and I'm pretty sure I'm crying in front of my classmates right now. I don't really know, though, because I'm too busy thinking about my hand and the pink handprint on the guy's face. But really… I'm busy thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to hit him. My hand _hurts_ , I tell you! Okay, I'm done whining. And I'm done fighting, apparently, because now I'm being leap-crystalled (or whatever it's called) back to the orphanage.

With my _fabulous_ luck, Tam and Pretty Boy Fitz were hanging out all over Tam's and my bunk. Sophie and Star Girl Biana were with Linh on her and Elaine's bunk. I glared at Tam. "Body odor is not attractive. Stop stinking up my bunk." I puffed out angrily as my cloaked coach told me to take the rest of the day off. The coach snapped, "Don't huff at me! You brought this on yourself. Don't bother returning until you clean up that attitude of yours, which should at least take until tomorrow! So come back the day after tomorrow." He stormed out, and as he did so, I stuck my tongue out and blew a fart noise at him. "Serves him right… I wasn't at fault. It was the tall guy. He provoked me." Tam laughed noisily. It was a frightening sound; it was somewhere between a bark and a strangling noise. It sounded like he was forcing a laugh. Which, by the humorless light in his eyes, I assumed was the truth. I glared all the same. _Darn… why am I in such a foul mood? Oh yeah! I'm suspended from school. On my first day, no less, and I've never been suspended. First day or no._ I climbed up the ladder to my bunk and kicked Tam off of it… literally.

I laid face down in the pillows. It was comfortable and hard to breath at the same time. Tam snickered, "I suppose you'll just have to take the same vacation as us Foxfire kids, and you'll just deal with the consequences when you're back." I couldn't even muster up enough energy to snap back with a witty retort. I just groaned into the pillow and laid there. Elaine bounced into the room, her hair sticking up in all directions, as if she'd been shocked with lightening. I looked up. She was holding the paralyzing thingy. She had a big smile on her face. "I changed it! Now, it electrocutes you instead of paralyzing you! Is this not great?" I nodded slowly. Honestly, was being electrocuted better than being paralyzed? Elaine held it out to me and begged me, "Please try it! _Pleeeeeeease?_ " I stared at her eyes. She was making a puppy face. How could I say no to the doe eyes? I ducked my head. If I did this, then I'd be willingly submitting to being electrified.

Man… I might make her feel bad if I don't try it. I sighed and took it. It made a soft zapping noise and heat thrummed in my hand. I found myself smiling. "It's… it's warm! This isn't so ba–" It zapped me and I fell over. I shivered and coughed, before I sat up. My hair was sticking up all over. I could feel it. And I was being shocked whenever I touched anything. Tam laughed quietly. Then he lazily reached down and held out his hand. I eyed him warily. I grabbed his hand with a smirk. If I was shocking things, then he'd be a recipient of it too! Feel the electricity, Bangs Boy! My skin tingled and he yanked me up. I patted his head (don't get any ideas, it's not like I'm being a softie! He just, like, helped me! Yeah… that's why!) and watched as his hair stood up to brush my palms. I giggled – his hair was soft! – and ruffled his hair a bit more. He laughed, and it wasn't quite as dry as before. A small bit of humor flickered in his eyes and then he sat up, his bangs covering his face. He cleared his throat and looked away, pushing me from him. I frowned and looked away too. "Awwwwww! Tammy-wammy has a cruuuuuuuush!" Fitz's perfect laugh, mixed with Linh's teasing words, filled the room. I felt my face heat up as a blush made my cheeks and ears burn. I glared at them, and then gasped when I saw my flushed face in the mirror. I slapped my cheeks nervously and glanced bashfully at Tam. His ears were only slightly red, but I guessed it was from anger.

"SHUT UP! WHY WOULD I LIKE A HUMAN LIKE HER?!" His words definitely hurt. I was wounded; I mean seriously! Anyone would be hurt! I just happened to start crying… no biggie! I'd just say he scared me with his outburst! Yeah, that'd keep me from being called a crybaby… I trembled and then backed up. Why was I such a crybaby? I cry when people yell, even when the shout isn't directed at me… I sniffled and went into the bathroom. I slammed the door and locked it. "I hate you too Tam!" I sobbed. I didn't really feel it though… I felt like someone just gutted me. I blew my nose, too upset to be embarrassed about the loud honking. I'd probably be embarrassed when I looked back on it though… I hiccupped and rubbed my eyes. I should start planning revenge! The memory of Tam's face last night though filled my mind. He had been so grief-stricken… WAIT, WHAT?! Why am I feeling sympathy for the enemy!

A soft knock sounded. "Mimi? Er… Miette? I… uh… I don't hate you… I mean, I don't like you… not like, I mean… What I mean to say is I don't love you, but I don't hate you! You're… a nice person. So, I um… you know what I'm saying? Right? I… I'm…" Tam's voice was so awkward, and I found it endearing. I didn't catch the last bit though. I got up and opened the door. "What?" My nose was stuffy, and I kind of started to feel self-conscious about it. There wasn't snot on my face, was there? Tam scratched his neck and he leaned his forehead on the doorframe. "You… I like you. I shouldn't have, uh, said that I didn't. So… I'm sorry. Don't expect me to repeat it!" He sighed heavily and my body moved on its own. I hugged him tightly and hiccupped. "You're forgiven… I guess…" He stood there awkwardly and then patted my back. Linh's 'awwwwww' filled the room with Fitz's snicker. Biana sounded annoyed as she snapped, "So what? Sophie and Fitz hug and no one goes 'awwwwww'! What's the big deal?" Tam stopped patting my back and then just hugged me with one arm. He nudged me and gave a half-hearted gruff tone as he said, "Get off me. You're gonna leave snot on my shirt." I squealed in indignation and disappeared in the bathroom to blow my nose.

He kept his back to the others and watched me. Was it me or did he have a sort of… fondness in his eyes? And why was that small smile so cute? Nah… I've just watched too many rom-coms! Later, when everyone was gone and Elaine and Linh were hogging the bathroom, I found myself watching Tam watch the clock. He seemed to be half-dozing, but I knew better. He was going to pretend like he was sleepy to hide his haunting nightmares from the other two. Elaine and Linh got out of the restroom, and Tam and I went next. I dug out my purple toothbrush and cinnamon toothpaste out of my small bag. I brushed my teeth, keeping an eye on Tam out of the corner of my eye. Finished my brushing and spit. I rinsed my toothbrush and put it away, and then sighed. I wiped the toothpaste from the corners of my mouth and then looked at Tam again. He spit and did the same as I with his toothbrush, and then turned to stare at me.

My face heated up and he mumbled, "You'll… uh… help me again, right? With the… eye-drops…" I nodded and he gave a small grin. "You… mean what you said, right? You… aren't going to judge me…?" I shook my head. "I like you. I know you're good, even though you try to hide it. You don't have to hold up the bad boy persona around me." Tam visibly swallowed. He gave a small nod and his voice cracked, "Ye-yeah. Thanks…" I beamed at him. Linh's voice called, "Okay you two, save your flirting for tomorrow! Since Miette has tomorrow off, we'll all go to the beach! She can borrow one of my swimsuits. I have a gray bikini that is so perfect for you! The top is ruffled and there's a cute bow on it that is yellow and cyan! And the bottom is so cute too! It's perfect for you, the bottoms are like a pair of shorts. It has a yellow and a cyan stripe on each side! Totally cute!" I called out in thanks and then looked up at Tam. I faltered.

Tam's face was bright red and his eyes were wide. His hand was clenched on the door handle, his knuckles turning white. "No! Linh, she can't wear that! Guys will stare! She can wear a one-piece! And board shorts! And a shirt too!" Linh cackled. "Are you jealous?" I found myself eyeing Tam's reaction. _Priceless_. "Thanks Linh! That's perfect!" Tam stuttered and wobbled over to his bunk. He flopped down and I could almost see his sanity floating away. I would tease him forever for this! When everyone was asleep, I retrieved the somnalene from my pillowcase and climbed down the ladder. Tam opened his eyes and stared up as I put the drops in his eyes. He sighed and then murmured, "I'm lucky… you care so much… about trash like me…" I brushed his hair with my fingers and then tapped his exposed forehead with my index finger. "I can't let you believe you're trash. You're amazing, and as much as I hate to admit it, precious." Tam touched my hand and then whispered, "You're so happy… how do you do it?" I grimaced. "I haven't always been this happy. I was… depressed. Borderline depressed. But that taught me that when it's over, there's paradise to look forward too. I'm so lucky that I had the best parents to support me. I can tell you're struggling, and… well… you don't really have parents to lean on. I don't want to sound insensitive…" He squeezed my hand. "My parents were jerks to my sister… because she had trouble controlling her hydrokinesis… and so they disowned her… but I couldn't stand for that. I was shamed with her, and we ran away. I hated how they favored me." I stared at him and then kissed his cheek. "Don't read too deeply into that. I just… dunno. I'll help you up if you fall… so don't think there's no one there to help. Linh's here for you too. And Fitz. Biana, Sophie, Elaine, and that Keefe guy too. I can tell. We've got your back." He released my hand and then smiled.

"I know."

 **Whew… sorry I'm so late! Finally, I have summer vacation! Free time! Yeah! I tried to make it long, and I'm afraid it got too serious… next chapter is the beach though! Who wants Tam to be jealous? I do! Look forward to a fun chapter next!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys! I went on fabulous trip to Oklahoma with my two best friends, and it was SO much fun! I loved it and it turns out that I'm great at paddle boarding, for a first timer! All I did was learn from the movies and watching others paddle board. I'm about 80% visual learner, and 20% hands-on. I cannot retain any information if you just tell me the facts. Maybe that's why I didn't do well in biology…? That was consistently my lowest grade out of all of my classes, next to theatre. I used to be fourth in my class, but then I dropped to eleventh… biology and theatre did that, I'm sure. I am so glad it is summer though! No school, staying up late, sleeping until whenever I like… ahhhhh. I could get used to this. Shame though, I have an English summer assignment. That's okay though! It's better than also having to do Algebra 2 Pre-AP and Chemistry Pre-AP homework too, as well as World History AP. Ugh… history *huge grimace* grrrrrr… I suck at remembering dates and battles and people. I respect those who are great at/love to learn about history. I fell asleep once in U.S. history… I didn't make that mistake again. I bombed the test that we had to take after. Wellllllllll… Onto the story! (and sorry I didn't update sooner)**

Waking up was a pain. We woke up early, and it was because Tam apparently liked mornings and decided it would be fun to take my quilt off and stuff it under Linh's bed. But, despite that, I felt awesome! The swimsuit Linh let me borrow fit me well, and the shorts-like bottoms fit perfectly, even though my muffin-top slightly showed. **(I once told the girls in my class about how I only wear high-waist jeans to hide my muffin-top, and legitimately one girl started crying and another said she could never be that honest with herself**. **The girl was crying from laughter. I feel no reason to be ashamed of my muffin-top though! I love seeing people's shock when I just flat out laugh at it. No one can make me feel ashamed! Everyone is unique :3)**

It made me kinda angry though. The first thing Tam did when he saw me was pinch the muffin-top. I mean… He. Pinched. The. Muffin-top. Someone hand me my water gun. This guy needs to be taught a lesson! But the little sneak ruffled my hair and strutted away before I could do anything. Urgh… he seriously makes me mad! But he's pretty sweet too… wait… shush mind. He is not sweet. He is unsweet. He is bitter. Agh… but he's… I'm gonna stop before I give people the wrong idea. I do NOT like him! I mean, yeah I like him but not LIKE like him… if ya know what I mean… gosh. I'm digging a hole for myself…

I blushed and watched Tam walk away. What is wrong with me today?! I growled to myself and smoothed my hair back into place. It was already growing out, and was to my shoulders now. "Such a pain…" I mumbled. Then I tied my hair into pigtails. It made me look younger, and at first it was embarrassing (with my round cheeks and baby face. On the bright side, my friends say I have big eyes like an anime character! I like anime) but I grew to like the pigtails. They complimented my bangs well. When we got to the beach, I immediately liked it. There were _tons_ of cute guys. So what if I'm a little boy crazy?

Biana clearly shared my opinion, although I noticed that she mostly looked up either Keefe or Dex (kind of odd. He was lean and pale, but hey. He was still a _lot_ hotter than human boys. I do like leaner boys though, and I do like Tam's broad shoulders, and… ugh. Not again). I took off the baggy tunic and pants to reveal the swimsuit (which I totally adored, thank you Linh). I was especially pleased with the stare I got from Tam. Sure, I wasn't the _tannest_ girl out there, but I also wasn't… un-tan? I don't know. I'm somewhere in the 40-65% tan range. If that were a thing. The yellow in the swimsuit brought out the gold accents in my blue/gray/green eyes (my eyes change color, ok?). But back to Tam's stare. I liked having his attention. It did bother me a bit though when girls flocked to our group to giggle and flirt with the boys (woah. Tam has muscles! Not the bulgy, beefy, buff kind that does the weird twitching thing, but the ones that are clearly there but not ridiculously defined. To put it simply, he was fit. And gorgeous. And tan. And– stop it Miette. Stop it. This is _Tam_ you're thinking about. He wouldn't like it if he found out you were _ogling_ him). Linh and I escaped, with Sophie and Biana not far behind. Elaine was not far after, with an umbrella to shade herself. She was mixing up some kind of elixir… maybe? I couldn't really tell, because my glasses were currently _broken by Tam_.

Anyhoo, we ditched the boys to get in the water. Linh didn't go too far in, although she did give a brief explanation on how she didn't want to accidently flood the beach. Sophie and Biana were also in the shallower end, but only because Biana was building a… really intricate mini-version of Everglen. She was even sculpting the trees and lake. I liked to swim farther out though, where the water was deep enough to come up to my chin. It was chilly and the ocean swayed, as if it were breathing in and out. Every in pulled the water out and every out pushed a wave to shore.

It was rhythmic. It was beautiful. I swayed with the ocean, feeling more relaxed and peaceful than any other time since I had been dragged out here to the Lost Cities. I felt so calm, I didn't even notice how far the shore was getting. When did I start floating? Oh well. I started swimming in closer to shore. The tide had pulled me along down the beach though… which way? I walked up to the beach after dog paddling to shore and sighed. Girls and guys were chatting idly on beach towels, some people were playing some sort of weird volleyball game while riding giant ant-looking things and using what looked to be a watermelon for the beach ball. I looked around for a large group of eight. Maybe they didn't notice my absence…

I decided to walk down to the left. Nothing looked familiar though, so I turned around and went the other way. After a while, I realized that this wasn't going so well. I walked up to a small drink stand and sat in one of the empty chairs, hoping they wouldn't chase me away if I didn't buy a soda pop or whatever they served. I looked at my shadow. "Go find Tam… tell him I'm lost. I'm at a drink stand, near a group of people playing a game on giant bugs." My shadow gave a salute and darted off. I shivered when a breeze swept through. It was kind of cold… I stepped out into the sunlight and sat in the sand instead. The pristine white sand was really pretty, and so was the blue hues of the water. It was like looking into tropical waters, where the shallow ends are blue-green and the deeper ends are navy blue. Sea foam rolled onto the shore off of waves that would be perfect for surfing. Not that I know anything about surfing… because I don't… my back was starting to feel kind of burnt when a shadow fell over me. I looked up and shaded my eyes and–

"Tam! Thank goodness!" I hugged him without thinking. I got an awkward pat on the shoulder, and then I pulled away. "I kind of floated away…" I ducked my head bashfully. I felt so sheepish all of a sudden, with him looking stern and serious and… worried? "Miette, _do not disappear like that_. We were worried! You haven't been here for long, and you've already managed to get separated from us! I don't want you going in the water without me." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me up, and then pulled me with him. My shadow was back in place, holding hands with Tam's shadow. Wait… Tam and I weren't holding hands! Since when were our shadows that close? We got back to the group (if I had only kept walking a little bit more towards the left, I would've seen the group!) and I found Linh hugging me and crying. "We were so worried about you! Look at you, you're sunburnt! We'll have to ask Sophie if Elwin gave her any balm in case of a sunburn emergency." She went off to talk with Sophie, and I was stuck under the large black umbrella with – you guessed it – Tam. Not that I was complaining! Linh came back with a tube of lotion and plopped it into Tam's hands. "Rub it in for her, she can't possibly do it herself!" She giggled and ran off. I gave Tam a glare. "No. N to the O, that spells no. I can use telekinesis and do it. Or I'll suffer the burn." Tam tilted an eyebrow. I flushed. "D-don't do that!" He smirked and popped the lid off the tube. He put some in my hand and said, "Go on then." I twisted around and (thankfully) managed to get the majority of the sunburn. The only part I couldn't get was the very middle of my back (I could live with a tiny sunburn) but Tam got it before I could tell him no (I guess I _wasn't_ going to live with a tiny sunburn). After that, we sort of just sat there.

We watched as the others had a water fight (Linh won, of course. No one came _close_ to beating her) and we watched them build tiny models of their homes, Slurps and Burps (it looks pretty dope, if you ask me. I want to go there), FoxFire, Lumenaria, and other places. The treehouses looked pretty wicked too, but according to Tam they were incinerated during the war. I remembered the darkness etched into his face and the haunted look in his eyes, and decided not to probe any further. I got up and dusted some sand off. I held out a hand to Tam, but when I bent over to help him up a loud wolf whistle rang through the air. A huge blush spread across my cheeks and I straightened immediately. I looked over my shoulder, and a group of guys were very obviously staring at me – and it wasn't at my face. I shifted uncomfortably and inched closer to Tam, who had gotten up and was now pulling me closer and glaring over my shoulder.

A cat call was made, and my skin crawled at the way this guy's voice slurred. He was also really disrespectful in the way he addressed me. Tam huffed angrily. "There'll always be that one person, you know? I won't let him get close though. I'll send them into the shadows' realm." He smirked. I smiled nervously, though. There was a dangerous edge in his voice, and to be honest it scared me. I grabbed his hand. "Let's, uh, go swimming with the others." Tam nodded. "I'll ask Fitz and Dex to come up and watch the stuff." I pulled him down to the water and we sent Fitz and Dex to watch the belongings. Tam hovered by my side, never going farther than ten feet away. Linh laughed and came up to me, and shooed Tam away. He left, but rather dramatically and with exaggerated exasperation. "You know, before we met Sophie and her friends, it was just Tam and I. He would flutter around me too, like a butterfly. He was so overprotective, and it was nice to get some independence. You know, without him standing by my side all the time. As much as I love him, my brother seriously needs to let go a little. He gets so serious sometimes."

I nodded, and watched as Tam kept looking at Linh and I. Then he'd look around, before looking at us again. A ball splashed beside us, abruptly ending our conversation with squeals and giggles. Two cute boys (oh snap the red-haired one with the freckles had the super cute curly hair and _ohmygoodness the other one had the palest blond hair I've ever seen and it is amazing_ ) approached, asking for it back. Linh laughed and pushed it away by making a small wave splash it back. Tam was beside us in an instant, his arm around my shoulders and his hand firmly planted on Linh's head. "Back off. This is my sister and my friend." The redhead laughed. "Bro, we weren't hitting on them. Relax!" The blond nodded. "We just needed our ball." I smiled. "It's cool!" They grinned and gave a thumbs up before walking away. They didn't look back, which made the knot in my stomach go away. I was worried that Tam would go nuts on them. Thankfully not though!

 **Okay, not sure where to end this, so I'll make a part two. Does that sound good, or is the beach chapter too boring? Leave reviews please! Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it was midnight when I wrote this and I was so tired I'm pretty sure I was cross-eyed. Okay, not sure if anyone needed this, but here goes:**

 **Blond – male**

 **Blonde – female**

 **Brunet – male or female**

 **Brunette – female**

 **Redhead/ginger – both**

 **Fiancé – male**

 **Fiancée – female**

 **Thought it might be helpful :) Found it on Tumblr (they were right, why don't they teach this in English?)**

 **Reviews?**


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